From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LKFDN-0006Fw-KI for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:55:37 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id EDB85E06DC; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 16:55:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from Princeton.EDU (postoffice03.Princeton.EDU [128.112.131.174]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0AAAE06DC for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 16:55:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpserver2.Princeton.EDU (smtpserver2.Princeton.EDU [128.112.129.148]) by Princeton.EDU (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n06GtX1P022682 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 11:55:33 -0500 (EST) Received: from sep.dynalias.net (fez.Princeton.EDU [128.112.129.190]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtpserver2.Princeton.EDU (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id n06GtWMZ027874 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NOT) for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 11:55:33 -0500 (EST) Received: by sep.dynalias.net (Postfix, from userid 1001) id F1F9C124D3; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 11:56:55 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 11:56:55 -0500 From: Willie Wong To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] weird cron mail problem Message-ID: <20090106165655.GA19012@princeton.edu> Mail-Followup-To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org References: <20090105164240.GA4573@ca.inter.net> <20090105170635.GA27047@math.princeton.edu> <20090105180445.GB4573@ca.inter.net> <20090105181825.GB8629@princeton.edu> <20090105222841.GA4578@ca.inter.net> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20090105222841.GA4578@ca.inter.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.16 (2007-06-09) X-Archives-Salt: 96754b84-7aad-47b7-bb67-ddd9c6092210 X-Archives-Hash: baa81f3b7136001cf5f9af2b2d86be9b On Mon, Jan 05, 2009 at 05:28:41PM -0500, Penguin Lover Philip Webb squawked: > 090105 Willie Wong wrote: > > On Mon, Jan 05, 2009 at 01:04:45PM -0500, Penguin Lover Philip Webb squawked: > > have you checked your outgoing mail logs > > to see if cron attempts to send mail when fetchmail is called? > > Thanks for the suggestion: the last few lines of /var/log/syslog are : > > Jan 5 17:10:01 localhost cron[4753]: (root) CMD (test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons ) > Jan 5 17:10:01 localhost cron[4754]: (purslow) CMD (/usr/bin/fetchmail) > Jan 5 17:10:11 localhost sSMTP[4765]: Sent mail for root@ca.inter.net (221 smtp-relay1.uniserve.ca closing connection) uid=1000 username=purslow outbytes=1049 > Jan 5 17:15:01 localhost cron[4908]: (purslow) CMD (/usr/bin/fetchmail) > Jan 5 17:15:09 localhost sSMTP[4909]: Sent mail for root@ca.inter.net (221 smtp-relay2.uniserve.ca closing connection) uid=1000 username=purslow outbytes=952 Okay, this suggests that either cron or your mailer is misconfigured. >From the logs, you are running ssmtp. Check the config files for it to see why mail intended for root@localhost is delivered to root@ca.inter.net. And check /etc/crontab to see whether the MAILTO field is set properly to where you want the mail to be delivered. Also, I don't know which implementation of cron you are using, but if your crontab is under , then usually cron will demand notification e-mails sent to ... unless, hum, do a ls -l /var/spool/cron/crontabs/ Is your user's crontab owned by root for some reason? > > Actually, what is your cron recipe anyway? > > /var/log/spool/cron/crontabs/ is : > > # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall. > # (/tmp/crontab.XXXXwsshN7 installed on Sun Nov 4 23:46:22 2007) > # (Cron version V5.0 -- $Id: crontab.c,v 1.12 2004/01/23 18:56:42 vixie Exp $) > */5 * * * * /usr/bin/fetchmail > > I considered trying 'fetchmail -s', but I'm not sure > how to add a flag in a cron file (perhaps by using a script). for what it's worth, I have my fetchmail line as /usr/bin/fetchmail > /dev/null so I only get e-mails when fetchmail writes to stderr (so when there's an error). Writing "fetchmail -s" instead of what you have really shouldn't be a problem. Why do you think it needs a script? > > Also, have you updated either cron or fetchmail recently? > > The problem originated 090104 c0520 , > when I edited ~/.fetchmailrc to delete the reference to a logfile. > However, attempts to restore the STATVS QVO ANTE have failed: > I've restored the previous version of .fetchmailrc without success > & I've remerged Fetchmail, rebooted & then run fetchmailconf , > but the crazy mails continue to appear every 5 min in my inbox. Okay, running fetchmail -s (or redirecting fetchmail output to /dev/null) will probably cure the problem of the deluge. But I still think you MDA is misconfigured for local mail. W -- Q: What's grey and proves the nondenumerability of the Reals? A: Cantor's Diagonal Elephant Sortir en Pantoufles: up 760 days, 15:25