[PLUG] Mail log reporting: cron issue?

[Rich Shepard]

On Fri, 22 May 2009, wes wrote:

> Right, but if the question is "why is cron running every script but this
> one?" Now we can say for certain that the answer is "cron IS running this
> script, but this script itself is failing."

Wes,

   That's the path I was following until I hit a dead end.

> Again, you are focusing on cron here.

   Out of desparation.

> If the set -x output appears during each invocation, then cron is indeed
> running the script, and you need to look within the script itself for the
> problem. As in, more logging.

   I will look for options on the 'set' command to learn what additional
output can be produced.

> This is a good question. I don't have an answer, but generally, logging
> helps. Also, in cases like this, I have found that the shell environment
> in which it is running can make a big difference. This can be different
> when running from cron, like envronment variables could be different,
> permissions could be different (as it's running as a different user), or
> any number of other things. set -x can show you some of this stuff, which
> we'd have to see differential reports between when it works and doesn't in
> order to tell (which you've probably sent before, but I didn't look, and
> can't be bothered to search my archives right now).

   The problem is that set -x sends its reports with exit code 0 regardless
of the mail log summary itself being run and mailed to me. For example, I
just ran /etc/cron.daily/1pflogsumm from the command line. The results of
'set -x' immediately appeard in the terminal. However, neither this result
nor the mail log summary is in my inbox.

> Is the error log ever not mailed to you when it should be?

   Sometimes.

   This is what is so aggrevating: no consistency anywhere.

Rich