Stop Cron from mailing messages

cpragman · 05-22-2005, 01:33 AM

I've found tons of undelivered cron messages in my /var/spool/clientmqueue folder (from Jaguar), and now panther seems to be stuffing them into /Var/spool/postfix/maildrop.

I cleaned 17GB out of /var/spool/clientmqueue last night. This has got to stop.

I know I can enable sendmail and configure forwarding for root to pass these along to a regular mail account, but I'd rather not bother.

I'd like to make cron stop mailing these notices. I see that I can edit my crontab file to add the variable "MAILTO=" and it will stop.

This seemed to work for ROOT, but when I try to edit my own user crontab file (crontab -e), I get an error message that makes no sense.

Code:

"/tmp/crontab.FRHPisVp3G":1: bad minute
crontab: errors in crontab file, can't install

I don't get it. I can change this file in all kinds of ways without error, but as soon as I add the "MAILTO=" line, it throws this error.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

voldenuit · 05-22-2005, 04:35 PM

How about redirecting stderr and stdout to /dev/null ?

That's how I do it, I didn't even know about the trick you try to use.

ajp · 05-22-2005, 05:45 PM

why have the mailto variable set at all. remove or comment it out and see what happens.

cpragman · 05-22-2005, 08:04 PM

ajp,

There is no "MAILTO=" parameter set by default in the system's crontab file, you have to add it manually. According to "man 5 crontab", cron automatically generates a mail message to the user spawning the job. That means that on my system, I can count on a couple of root jobs a day, plus numerous user jobs per day. Adds up quickly.

If the MAILTO= parameter is provided with a username , the mail goes to that user. If the "MAILTO=" is provided with no user name, then no mail is generated (i.e., black hole).

The REAL problem I'm having is that the system's crontab (i.e., /etc/crontab) accepts the "MAILTO=" variable, yet for some reason my user's crontab filed (edited with "crontab -e") refuse to accept any file I provide that has "MAILTO=" in it.

cpragman · 05-23-2005, 08:15 AM

I solved this one last night.

The correct syntax to add to the crontab file is as follows:

Code:

MAILTO=""

My problem was that I left out the empty quotes. Once I fixed that, no new messages were added to /var/spool/postfix/maildrop.

05-22-2005, 01:33 AM	#1
cpragman All Star Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Limerick, PA Posts: 858	Stop Cron from mailing messages I've found tons of undelivered cron messages in my /var/spool/clientmqueue folder (from Jaguar), and now panther seems to be stuffing them into /Var/spool/postfix/maildrop. I cleaned 17GB out of /var/spool/clientmqueue last night. This has got to stop. I know I can enable sendmail and configure forwarding for root to pass these along to a regular mail account, but I'd rather not bother. I'd like to make cron stop mailing these notices. I see that I can edit my crontab file to add the variable "MAILTO=" and it will stop. This seemed to work for ROOT, but when I try to edit my own user crontab file (crontab -e), I get an error message that makes no sense. Code: "/tmp/crontab.FRHPisVp3G":1: bad minute crontab: errors in crontab file, can't install I don't get it. I can change this file in all kinds of ways without error, but as soon as I add the "MAILTO=" line, it throws this error. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Last edited by cpragman; 05-22-2005 at 07:59 PM.

05-23-2005, 08:15 AM	#5
cpragman All Star Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Limerick, PA Posts: 858	I solved this one last night. The correct syntax to add to the crontab file is as follows: Code: MAILTO="" My problem was that I left out the empty quotes. Once I fixed that, no new messages were added to /var/spool/postfix/maildrop.

05-22-2005, 04:35 PM	#2
voldenuit League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Old Europe Posts: 5,146	How about redirecting stderr and stdout to /dev/null ? That's how I do it, I didn't even know about the trick you try to use.

05-22-2005, 05:45 PM	#3
ajp Triple-A Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA Posts: 80	why have the mailto variable set at all. remove or comment it out and see what happens.

05-22-2005, 08:04 PM	#4
cpragman All Star Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Limerick, PA Posts: 858	ajp, There is no "MAILTO=" parameter set by default in the system's crontab file, you have to add it manually. According to "man 5 crontab", cron automatically generates a mail message to the user spawning the job. That means that on my system, I can count on a couple of root jobs a day, plus numerous user jobs per day. Adds up quickly. If the MAILTO= parameter is provided with a username , the mail goes to that user. If the "MAILTO=" is provided with no user name, then no mail is generated (i.e., black hole). The REAL problem I'm having is that the system's crontab (i.e., /etc/crontab) accepts the "MAILTO=" variable, yet for some reason my user's crontab filed (edited with "crontab -e") refuse to accept any file I provide that has "MAILTO=" in it.