Getting fetchmail to read .fetchmailrc

I am programming a spam filter in UNIX that requires the use of fetchmail to read mail into an mbox.

I have configured my .fetchmailrc file to check each of my mail servers every 20 seconds. I know this has been configured correctly because if I run fetchmail from the terminal, things are fine.

However, I want my filter to be able to call fetchmail when I start the filter. I use the line:

system("fetchmail");

to call fetchmail however the console just returns:

fetchmail: No server specified

Is there any way to get my filter to run fetchmail with my .fetchmailrc configurations?

Thanks

put .fetchmailrc where it is looking for it? sounds like a difference in users.

It's not a difference in users though since I'm only running one user at the moment. Also, running fetchmail from the terminal works as expected. The system call just won't load the .fetchmailrc.

i strongly suggest setting up another account and giving it su privileges and doing your work from there, instead of logging in as root.

I'm actually working off a school machine, so I'm already a user that has no access to root. My .fetchmailrc file is located within my home directory.

Maybe the problem lies in the semantics of system(). Does anyone know if system() will open other files if the command that is invoked requires it?