[gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Michael Higgins]

Hello, folks --

Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it doesn't.
No dead.letter to be found either.

Not having found any examples of folks using ssmtp to mail cron errors,
does anyone have an experience to share, or advice (short of installing
an MTA)?

Or, if this is totally possible, can I get help to eliminate possible
config errors by some method?

Cheers,

-- 
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 | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
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 michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org
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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:

> Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it doesn't.

It works on several boxes here. Is ssmtp working correctly? Try

echo -e "To: Me\nSubject: ssmtp test\n\nssmtp test" | /usr/sbin/ssmtp youraddress 

If it fails, check /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, particularly the mailhub
setting.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Windows Error #10: Insufficient money spent in hardware.

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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Ricardo Saffi Marques]

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I also have mailx installed. Try that.

On 1/22/08, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
>
> > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> > emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> > to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it doesn't.
>
> It works on several boxes here. Is ssmtp working correctly? Try
>
> echo -e "To: Me\nSubject: ssmtp test\n\nssmtp test" | /usr/sbin/ssmtp
> youraddress
>
> If it fails, check /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, particularly the mailhub
> setting.
>
>
> --
> Neil Bothwick
>
> Windows Error #10: Insufficient money spent in hardware.
>
>


-- 
Ricardo Saffi Marques
Laboratório de Administração e Segurança de Sistemas (LAS/IC)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Cell: +55 (19) 8128-0435
Skype: ricardo_saffi_marques
Website: http://www.rsaffi.com

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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Ricardo Saffi Marques]

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Oh, forgot to mention: and it works beautifully. ;)

On 1/22/08, Ricardo Saffi Marques <saffi@las.ic.unicamp.br> wrote:
>
> I also have mailx installed. Try that.
>
> On 1/22/08, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> >
> > > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> > > emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> > > to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it doesn't.
> >
> > It works on several boxes here. Is ssmtp working correctly? Try
> >
> > echo -e "To: Me\nSubject: ssmtp test\n\nssmtp test" | /usr/sbin/ssmtp
> > youraddress
> >
> > If it fails, check /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, particularly the mailhub
> > setting.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Neil Bothwick
> >
> > Windows Error #10: Insufficient money spent in hardware.
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Ricardo Saffi Marques
> Laboratório de Administração e Segurança de Sistemas (LAS/IC)
> Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
> Cell: +55 (19) 8128-0435
> Skype: ricardo_saffi_marques
> Website: http://www.rsaffi.com




-- 
Ricardo Saffi Marques
Laboratório de Administração e Segurança de Sistemas (LAS/IC)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Cell: +55 (19) 8128-0435
Skype: ricardo_saffi_marques
Website: http://www.rsaffi.com

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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Michael Higgins]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:48:05 +0000
Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:

> On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> 
> > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> > emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> > to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it
> > doesn't.
> 
> It works on several boxes here. Is ssmtp working correctly? Try
> 
> echo -e "To: Me\nSubject: ssmtp test\n\nssmtp test" | /usr/sbin/ssmtp
> youraddress 
> 
> If it fails, check /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, particularly the mailhub
> setting.

No fail. Worked like a charm...

I edit my crontab like sudo crontab -u mykhyggz -e

At the top, is MAILTO="email@isp.com"

My user belongs to cron group: groups
wheel cron users mykhyggz

Cron is running: top bn1|grep cron
 5068 root      18   0  3072  692  552 S  0.0  0.7   0:00.00 cron

15        08      *              *       *            echo hello world

should have sent me an email with 'hello world' in the body at 8:15, or
so I believe, but didn't.

What else can I check?

Cheers,

-- 
 |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~  
 | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
 |    |ichael  |   |iggins    \^ /
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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Greg Bowser]

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I'm using ssmtp to send mail on several boxes. One of the boxes is running a
real MTA and acts as the hub for the other boxes.

Check /var/log/mail*.

I'm assuming you set mailhub=foo in your ssmtp.conf, which means you're
using the box foo to relay your mail. It's possible that the hub is refusing
to send the mail. That would look something like:

Jan 17 15:44:59 starscream postfix/smtp[8356]: 24E2D4AC9: to=<
topnotcher@gmail.com>, relay=xxxxxxxx:25, delay=15, delays=0.1/0.01/15/0.1,
dsn=5.7.1, status=bounced (host xxxxxxxxxxx said: 550 5.7.1 <
topnotcher@gmail.com>... Relaying denied (in reply to RCPT TO command))

At any rate, if there's an error anywhere along the way, it should show up
in one of the mail logs.

On Jan 22, 2008 11:19 AM, Michael Higgins <linux@evolone.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:48:05 +0000
> Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> >
> > > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> > > emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> > > to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it
> > > doesn't.
> >
> > It works on several boxes here. Is ssmtp working correctly? Try
> >
> > echo -e "To: Me\nSubject: ssmtp test\n\nssmtp test" | /usr/sbin/ssmtp
> > youraddress
> >
> > If it fails, check /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, particularly the mailhub
> > setting.
>
> No fail. Worked like a charm...
>
> I edit my crontab like sudo crontab -u mykhyggz -e
>
> At the top, is MAILTO="email@isp.com"
>
> My user belongs to cron group: groups
> wheel cron users mykhyggz
>
> Cron is running: top bn1|grep cron
>  5068 root      18   0  3072  692  552 S  0.0  0.7   0:00.00 cron
>
> 15        08      *              *       *            echo hello world
>
> should have sent me an email with 'hello world' in the body at 8:15, or
> so I believe, but didn't.
>
> What else can I check?
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
>  |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~
>  | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
>  |    |ichael  |   |iggins    \^ /
>  michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org
> --
> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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[gentoo-user] Re: cron and ssmtp

[Guilherme Amadio]

 Hi,

On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 08:19:15AM -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> I edit my crontab like sudo crontab -u mykhyggz -e
> 
> At the top, is MAILTO="email@isp.com"
> 
> My user belongs to cron group: groups
> wheel cron users mykhyggz
> 
> Cron is running: top bn1|grep cron
>  5068 root      18   0  3072  692  552 S  0.0  0.7   0:00.00 cron
> 
> 15        08      *              *       *            echo hello world
> 
> should have sent me an email with 'hello world' in the body at 8:15, or
> so I believe, but didn't.
> 
> What else can I check?
> 
  I believe that the MAILTO variable mails output only when there are
  errors, so try putting 'ls /idontexist' as a command and see if you
  get anything. You may have to mail normal output by hand.

  Cheers,

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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Ricardo Saffi Marques]

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I think it's not a group issue. I put myself at cron and crontab groups,
just in case. If it was a group thing, you wouldn't even be able to "crontab
-e".
I edit my cron table using: "crontab -e" (no extra parameters needed). Check
it out by "crontab -l". For root, I do the same.

Regards,

Saffi

On 1/22/08, Michael Higgins <linux@evolone.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:48:05 +0000
> Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> >
> > > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> > > emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> > > to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it
> > > doesn't.
> >
> > It works on several boxes here. Is ssmtp working correctly? Try
> >
> > echo -e "To: Me\nSubject: ssmtp test\n\nssmtp test" | /usr/sbin/ssmtp
> > youraddress
> >
> > If it fails, check /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf, particularly the mailhub
> > setting.
>
> No fail. Worked like a charm...
>
> I edit my crontab like sudo crontab -u mykhyggz -e
>
> At the top, is MAILTO="email@isp.com"
>
> My user belongs to cron group: groups
> wheel cron users mykhyggz
>
> Cron is running: top bn1|grep cron
> 5068 root      18   0  3072  692  552 S  0.0  0.7   0:00.00 cron
>
> 15        08      *              *       *            echo hello world
>
> should have sent me an email with 'hello world' in the body at 8:15, or
> so I believe, but didn't.
>
> What else can I check?
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~
> | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
> |    |ichael  |   |iggins    \^ /
> michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org
> --
> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


-- 
Ricardo Saffi Marques
Laboratório de Administração e Segurança de Sistemas (LAS/IC)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Cell: +55 (19) 8128-0435
Skype: ricardo_saffi_marques
Website: http://www.rsaffi.com

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: cron and ssmtp

[Ricardo Saffi Marques]

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Not really, Guilherme. ANY output from any command executed under cron WILL
be outputed to the mail set on MAILTO variable.

On 1/22/08, Guilherme Amadio <guilherme.amadio@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Jan 22, 2008 at 08:19:15AM -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> > I edit my crontab like sudo crontab -u mykhyggz -e
> >
> > At the top, is MAILTO="email@isp.com"
> >
> > My user belongs to cron group: groups
> > wheel cron users mykhyggz
> >
> > Cron is running: top bn1|grep cron
> >  5068 root      18   0  3072  692  552 S  0.0  0.7   0:00.00 cron
> >
> > 15        08      *              *       *            echo hello world
> >
> > should have sent me an email with 'hello world' in the body at 8:15, or
> > so I believe, but didn't.
> >
> > What else can I check?
> >
>   I believe that the MAILTO variable mails output only when there are
>   errors, so try putting 'ls /idontexist' as a command and see if you
>   get anything. You may have to mail normal output by hand.
>
>   Cheers,
>
> --
> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


-- 
Ricardo Saffi Marques
Laboratório de Administração e Segurança de Sistemas (LAS/IC)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Cell: +55 (19) 8128-0435
Skype: ricardo_saffi_marques
Website: http://www.rsaffi.com

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: cron and ssmtp

[Ricardo Saffi Marques]

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The mailhub seems to be a good place to think about.
Leave a "tail -f /var/log/mail/current" running in a shell while you wait
for a cron to be executed. When it runs, check out what happens in the
logfile.

Regards,

Saffi

-- 
Ricardo Saffi Marques
Laboratório de Administração e Segurança de Sistemas (LAS/IC)
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Cell: +55 (19) 8128-0435
Skype: ricardo_saffi_marques
Website: http://www.rsaffi.com

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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Jan Seeger]

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On Tue, 22. Jan, Ricardo Saffi Marques spammed my inbox with 
> I think it's not a group issue. I put myself at cron and crontab groups,
> just in case. If it was a group thing, you wouldn't even be able to "crontab
> -e".
> I edit my cron table using: "crontab -e" (no extra parameters needed). Check
> it out by "crontab -l". For root, I do the same.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Saffi
> 
> On 1/22/08, Michael Higgins <linux@evolone.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:48:05 +0000
> > Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> > >
> > > > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and getting
> > > > emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world". I expect this
> > > > to come as an email to the address I put in MAILTO="". But it
> > > > doesn't.
<snip>

I am also getting mails from cron with ssmtp. However, I had to twiddle my mail server setup:
Since ssmtp does not specify a complete From: (or envelope from) adress, the server refused the
mail. I needed to allow messages without a from: adress to receive any mail from cron.
Regards
Jan
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Re: [gentoo-user] cron and ssmtp

[Michael Higgins]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:37:32 +0100
Jan Seeger <jan.seeger@thenybble.de> wrote:

> > > > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:36:46 -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Is anyone using cron (vixie-cron) without a real MTA and
> > > > > getting emails? The test is simple, just "echo hello world".
> > > > > I expect this to come as an email to the address I put in
> > > > > MAILTO="". But it doesn't.
> <snip>
> 
> I am also getting mails from cron with ssmtp. However, I had to
> twiddle my mail server setup: Since ssmtp does not specify a complete
> From: (or envelope from) adress, the server refused the mail. I
> needed to allow messages without a from: adress to receive any mail
> from cron. Regards Jan

Well, to f/u with all of this.

I re-emerged vixie-cron and cronbase too...

 * Portage doesn't enforce proper permissions on already existing
 * directories (bug 141619). Appropriate permissions are now being set
 * on //etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly},
 * //var/spool/cron/ and //var/spool/cron/lastrun/
 * (see bug 182998)

IDK if that mattered. Again, I have no problem sending mail from a
shell. Looking at world, ssmtp isn't listed. I installed that too, for
kicks. But, I've been able to send and receive mail, so that shouldn't
matter...

In fact, I believe now what I do have is a problem getting cron to do
it's thing. At this point, I'm baffled. I started finding this in the
logs, however, so something changed:

Jan 22 16:04:01 devserv cron[22211]: Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session
Jan 22 16:05:01 devserv cron[22215]: Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session
Jan 22 16:06:01 devserv cron[22216]: Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session
Jan 22 16:07:01 devserv cron[22217]: Cannot make/remove an entry for the specified session

Well, I guess now I know it's trying...

I'll remove 'pam' from my use flags for this? Re-emerge vixie-cron...

... oh, hello, now it's working??? WTF

Important: After upgrading PAM, from any version to any version, you
have to restart those services that are using it to avoid internal ABI
mismatches. This includes sshd, vixie-cron (and probably any other cron
service), mail servers, and in general almost every service that
accepts users.

Oh, REALLY? So there's a connection... hmm. I recall an upgrade howto
and check

 qfile -o /etc/pam.d/*
/etc/pam.d/cron

... but it seems fine... Referring to  a working config, I uncommented
the following line:

session optional        pam_limits.so

Re-emerged with pam useflag enabled again. Joy.

Thanks for all of your input, everyone... I'll be damned if I can
figure out what exactly fixed it, though.

Cheers,

-- 
 |\  /|        |   |          ~ ~  
 | \/ |        |---|          `|` ?
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