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 1LJzjF-00013H-8r for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:23:29 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 69474E04A9; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:22:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4128CE04A9 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:22:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D1325651B9 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:22:58 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at gentoo.org X-Spam-Score: -3.529 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.529 required=5.5 tests=[AWL=0.070, BAYES_00=-2.599, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-1] Received: from smtp.gentoo.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.gentoo.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id j9plh8JaDL-t for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:22:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2B01165744 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:22:51 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1LJzia-0005Dc-1E for gentoo-user@gentoo.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:22:48 +0000 Received: from c-98-215-178-6.hsd1.in.comcast.net ([98.215.178.6]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:22:48 +0000 Received: from reader by c-98-215-178-6.hsd1.in.comcast.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:22:48 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org From: Harry Putnam Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: weird cron mail problem Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:22:33 -0600 Organization: Still searching... Message-ID: <874p0d5lme.fsf@newsguy.com> 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 X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: c-98-215-178-6.hsd1.in.comcast.net User-Agent: Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Gtu/l4HcDjcQbr987C3i3499h6o= Sender: news X-Archives-Salt: 0d7a812e-3ea4-4c35-9e15-e0da3c361ab2 X-Archives-Hash: 29e3b7ecbb73d69fbf41578bb1782b41 Philip Webb writes: >> 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. I think that looks like normal cron mail... Looks like you may have once had a redirect to `/dev/null' in the crontab line and inadvertently removed it. My fetchmail line in crontab: */15 * * * * /usr/bin/fetchmail -f /home/reader/.fetchmailrc >/dev/null 2>&1 Note the difference with yours: */5 * * * * /usr/bin/fetchmail Not redirect in yours but note that I dump any output to /dev/null You may first want to just say `cmd >/dev/null' So that any errors are still send to you but once its working smoothly you can add 2>&1 like `cmd >/dev/null 2>&1' so that both stderr and stdout go to dev/null I think you can also do the same thing like this `cmd &>/dev/null