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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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 Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:24 am Post subject: Which program is filling up my system log file? |
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I am trying to track down what program on my computer is causing log entries to appear in my system log every ten minutes and was wondering if I could get some input on how to track this down....
My gut feeling is that it is Evolution (the Ximian email client) as I have it set up to check email every ten minutes. What is suspicious though is that I can exit out of Evolution, log out of my user in Gnome, log in as a root user through Gnome, log back out, and then back in as a regular user and whatever this is it keeps on going just like the Energizer rabbit  .
Here are some snippets from my system file...
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Mar 3 19:20:01 localhost /usr/sbin/cron[21066]: (root) MAIL (mailed 42 bytes of output but got status 0x0001 )
Mar 3 19:30:01 localhost /usr/sbin/cron[21071]: (root) CMD (est -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons )
Mar 3 19:30:01 localhost sSMTP[21073]: Unable to locate mail
Mar 3 19:30:01 localhost sSMTP[21073]: Cannot open mail:25
Mar 3 19:30:01 localhost /usr/sbin/cron[21070]: (root) MAIL (mailed 42 bytes of output but got status 0x0001 )
Mar 3 19:40:01 localhost /usr/sbin/cron[21075]: (root) CMD (est -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons )
Mar 3 19:40:01 localhost sSMTP[21077]: Unable to locate mail
Mar 3 19:40:01 localhost sSMTP[21077]: Cannot open mail:25
Mar 3 19:40:01 localhost /usr/sbin/cron[21074]: (root) MAIL (mailed 42 bytes of output but got status 0x0001 )
Mar 3 19:50:01 localhost /usr/sbin/cron[21079]: (root) CMD (est -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons )
Mar 3 19:50:01 localhost sSMTP[21081]: Unable to locate mail
Mar 3 19:50:01 localhost sSMTP[21081]: Cannot open mail:25
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Is there some way for me to have the name of the program initiating this stuff show up in the messages log file?
My crontab file has this in it...
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# for vixie cron
#
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/sys-apps/vixie-cron/files/crontab-3.0.1-r4,v 1.6 2004/07/18 04:40:50 dragonheart Exp $
#
#
# Global variables
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/
# check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly
0 * * * * root rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly
1 3 * * * root rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily
15 4 * * 6 root rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly
30 5 1 * * root rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly
*/10 * * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons
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It looks like that last line is what is doing this every ten minutes but I am not sure what this line is or how it got in there.
My system logger is syslog-ng. My system cron is vixie-cron.
Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Carlos
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I'm not yet a real Guru so if you are a newbie here and want to teach me a thing or two, please do! I'm still learning just like you. |
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angoraspruce
Apprentice
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 193
Location: Minnesota, USA
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:42 am Post subject: Re: Which program is filling up my system log file? |
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Hello Carlos123,
Your cron jobs are like the energizer bunny. Regardless of whether you're logged on or not, they run. It's just your email causing the logging.
HTH
edit: BTW, the last line of your cron tests whether /usr/sbin/run-crons exists and is executable, then runs it. Why don't you take a peek at run-crons, assuming that it's a text file, and see what it says? |
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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:27 am Post subject: Re: Which program is filling up my system log file? |
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| angoraspruce wrote: | | ...It's just your email causing the logging. |
I know it's got something to do with email given that it's SMTP related in some of it but how can I tell if it's Evolution in particular? The Evolution people are telling me it's got nothing to do with Evolution.
| Quote: |
BTW, the last line of your cron tests whether /usr/sbin/run-crons exists and is executable, then runs it. Why don't you take a peek at run-crons, assuming that it's a text file, and see what it says? |
The /usr/sbin/run-crons file has nothing in it that would indicate what program is iniatiing these log entries. At least as far as I can tell. All it seems to do is check to see if there are cron jobs to run so looking in the file doesn't tell me much unfortunately.
I'd like to prove that Evolution is the application doing this if at all possible (if likely that it is) so that I could get back to Evolution folks to show them that there may be a runaway process initiated by their program that continues running even after one closes it out. They are telling me that it's not related to Evolution at all.
But if it's not related to Evolution what could be iniating these attempts to communicate through port 25 (SMTP)?
Carlos
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I'm not yet a real Guru so if you are a newbie here and want to teach me a thing or two, please do! I'm still learning just like you. |
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Chris W
l33t
Joined: 25 Jun 2002
Posts: 972
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:27 am Post subject: |
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Cron is running jobs as specified in your configuration directories (/etc/cron.*). One of these jobs is producing output that cron is trying to mail to the user root. Unfortunately, your install of ssmtp (a basic stub mail service) is trying to contact a mail server by the name of "mail" and fails. Places to look include /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf and the man pages for ssmtp.
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Cheers,
Chris W
"Common sense: The collection of prejudices acquired by age 18." -- Einstein |
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carlos123
Guru
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 536
Location: Alberta, Canada.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 6:13 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Chris. That makes sense. I'll chase it down, now that you have given me the overview, to better understand cron and why it is trying to email me something. I can see that I wrongly assumed Evolution was initiating this as a result of the mail interval being 10 minutes just like in Evolution and given that this had something to do with mailing something out.
Much appreciated ya all. This forum is an absolute goldmine of valuable info and input!
Carlos
_________________
I'm not yet a real Guru so if you are a newbie here and want to teach me a thing or two, please do! I'm still learning just like you. |
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nichocouk
Guru
Joined: 10 Mar 2005
Posts: 585
Location: Glasgow
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| Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 11:50 am Post subject: |
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Hi Carlos123,
Have you found something new? I'm trying to understand the lines in my everything/current log file:
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Apr 8 05:07:47 [sSMTP] Unable to locate mail
Apr 8 05:07:47 [sSMTP] Cannot open mail:25
Apr 8 05:07:47 [/usr/sbin/cron] (root) MAIL (mailed 211 bytes of output but got status 0x0001_)
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It' s probably linked to cron as was suggested by Chris W.
I don't know where to start 'cause I have not set up anything for emails in my system, so I was assuming that cron would never be able to email root and instead would create dead.letter files (which it does). Is mail capabilities available by default? What has to be set?
Finally, another way to check if it was Evolution or any other mail client that was causing the messages would have been to change the check interval from 10 minutes to say, 9, and see whether it would affect the logs.
Cheers,
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nichocouk
L'Etat, c'est moi. |
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