Odd message from cron daemon

[Anthony Atkielski]

I get an e-mail like the following every eleven minutes on my test
system:

================================================== ===============

From [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email] Sun Feb 27 16:55:00 2005
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 16:55:00 +0100 (CET)
From: [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email] (Cron Daemon)
To: [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email]
Subject: Cron <operator@contactdish> /usr/libexec/save-entropy
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=operator>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=operator>

This: not found

================================================== ===============

What does this message mean? I've never seen it on my production
system.

--
Anthony

[David Fleck]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005, Anthony Atkielski wrote:

> I get an e-mail like the following every eleven minutes on my test
> system:
>
> ================================================== ===============
>

>> From [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email] Sun Feb 27 16:55:00 2005

> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 16:55:00 +0100 (CET)
> From: [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email] (Cron Daemon)
> To: [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email]
> Subject: Cron <operator@contactdish> /usr/libexec/save-entropy
> X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
> X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin>
> X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/>
> X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=operator>
> X-Cron-Env: <USER=operator>
>
> This: not found
>
> ================================================== ===============
>
> What does this message mean? I've never seen it on my production
> system.

As a wild guess, check to see that line 29 in /usr/libexec/save-entropy
has a comment mark at the start of it:

# This script is called by cron to store bits of randomness which are


--
David Fleck
[email]david.fleck@mchsi.com[/email]

[Roland Smith]

On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 04:58:31PM +0100, Anthony Atkielski wrote:

> I get an e-mail like the following every eleven minutes on my test
> system:
>
> ================================================== ===============
>

> >From [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email] Sun Feb 27 16:55:00 2005

> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 16:55:00 +0100 (CET)
> From: [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email] (Cron Daemon)
> To: [email]operator@contactdish.atkielski.com[/email]
> Subject: Cron <operator@contactdish> /usr/libexec/save-entropy
> X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
> X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin>
> X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/>
> X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=operator>
> X-Cron-Env: <USER=operator>
>
> This: not found
>
> ================================================== ===============
>
> What does this message mean? I've never seen it on my production
> system.

The save-entropy script is being run from cron. See /etc/crontab. The first
line of this script after the header begins with "# This". It looks like
the hash mark was removed, and the shell is trying to find the "This"
command and fails.

Roland
--
R.F. Smith /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign
r s m i t h @ x s 4 a l l . n l \ / No HTML/RTF in e-mail
[url]http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/[/url] X No Word docs in e-mail
public key: [url]http://www.keyserver.net[/url] / \ Respect for open standards

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFCIfoCEnfvsMMhpyURAr6JAJ9tz81tZ6HFqJhSWYl82n QTTxMn2gCfVQk7
C8h0qnJqEIFUMXST6NFUWWM=
=4sN0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Anthony Atkielski]

Roland Smith writes:

> The save-entropy script is being run from cron. See /etc/crontab. The first
> line of this script after the header begins with "# This". It looks like
> the hash mark was removed, and the shell is trying to find the "This"
> command and fails.

I checked both /usr/libexec/save-entropy and /etc/crontab. The two
files are identical on my production server and on my test server: same
size, same contents, same modification date, etc. However, this
mysterious message is being mailed to me only on the test system. I'm
somewhat bewildered. I agree that it looks like a simple typo in a file
somewhere, but the files are identical on both systems.

What else could be wrong?

--
Anthony

[Anthony Atkielski]

David Fleck writes:

> As a wild guess, check to see that line 29 in /usr/libexec/save-entropy
> has a comment mark at the start of it:
>
> # This script is called by cron to store bits of randomness which are

It does. It looks identical to the same file on my production system.
The only difference is that I'm not getting this mystery message on my
production system.

What else might cause this?

--
Anthony

[Roland Smith]

On Sun, Feb 27, 2005 at 06:44:16PM +0100, Anthony Atkielski wrote:

> Roland Smith writes:
>

> > The save-entropy script is being run from cron. See /etc/crontab. The first
> > line of this script after the header begins with "# This". It looks like
> > the hash mark was removed, and the shell is trying to find the "This"
> > command and fails.

>
> I checked both /usr/libexec/save-entropy and /etc/crontab. The two
> files are identical on my production server and on my test server: same
> size, same contents, same modification date, etc. However, this
> mysterious message is being mailed to me only on the test system. I'm

Could it be that the cron output is mailed to someone else on the
production machine? It works OK on my 5.3 box, though. My system has
revision 1.2 of /usr/libexec/save-entropy, and it is 3073 bytes. Yours
should be the same, since the revision dates to Januari 2001.

Is there any difference between /usr/libexec/save-entropy and
/usr/src/libexec/save-entropy/save-entropy.sh ? They should be identical.

> somewhat bewildered. I agree that it looks like a simple typo in a file
> somewhere, but the files are identical on both systems.
>
> What else could be wrong?

Hmmm, disk or filesystem trouble maybe? I guess that would show in the
logfile. Maybe an fsck on /usr in single user mode helps?

Roland
--
R.F. Smith /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign
r s m i t h @ x s 4 a l l . n l \ / No HTML/RTF in e-mail
[url]http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/[/url] X No Word docs in e-mail
public key: [url]http://www.keyserver.net[/url] / \ Respect for open standards

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFCIg+vEnfvsMMhpyURAmkaAJ94wYJfjsui6vTOSVFSJ9 3zFjUOZwCdGd4x
hUQntdLqGYyHTBGU8KiO8qQ=
=okWB
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[David Fleck]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005, Anthony Atkielski wrote:

> It does. It looks identical to the same file on my production system.
> The only difference is that I'm not getting this mystery message on my
> production system.
>
> What else might cause this?

Hmmm. Well, I don't know, but I'd try running the save-entropy script
manually and see if you can recreate the message that way. If so, add a
-x to the first line

#!/bin/sh -x

and run it manually again - you should be able to see what command
precedes the message.

--
David Fleck
[email]david.fleck@mchsi.com[/email]