Hi, Since updating our server to 5.4-STABLE, I've noticed a very strange problem with cron. Sometimes it just decides to stop, for no apparent reason. It stops at different times, it doesn't seem to be affected by any particular cronjob. There are no messages about this in any logfile, it just stops running and I have to start it manually. Obviously this is a major PITA. Can anyone help me to debug this problem further? I really don't know where to look. Searches of all freebsd mailing lists have turned up with nothing. Regards, Philip Brennan
Phil, On Fri, 27 May 2005, Phil Brennan wrote:> Since updating our server to 5.4-STABLE, I've noticed a very strange > problem with cron. > Sometimes it just decides to stop, for no apparent reason. It stops at > different times, it doesn't seem to be affected by any particular > cronjob. > There are no messages about this in any logfile, it just stops running > and I have to start it manually. Obviously this is a major PITA. Can > anyone help me to debug this problem further? I really don't know > where to look. Searches of all freebsd mailing lists have turned up > with nothing.I've only got access to a FreeBSD 4.11 machine at the moment, but have you tried the -x debug flags listed under cron(8)? (4.11 doesn't have rcNG, so I can't tell you where it's started or whether you'll need to redirect output, but I'm sure a bit of diggin around will show you.) Cheers, David Adam zanchey@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
Phil Brennan wrote:> Since updating our server to 5.4-STABLE, I've noticed a very strange > problem with cron. > Sometimes it just decides to stop, for no apparent reason. It stops at > different times, it doesn't seem to be affected by any particular > cronjob. > There are no messages about this in any logfile, it just stops running > and I have to start it manually. Obviously this is a major PITA. Can > anyone help me to debug this problem further? I really don't know > where to look. Searches of all freebsd mailing lists have turned up > with nothing.I just filed PR 81555 about this. For me, it appears that cron(8) exits after a SIGPIPE when an LDAP-user does a crontab -e. Are you also using LDAP here? See also the PR (hasn't appeared on the website when I type this btw). http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=81555 -- Dean C. Strik Eindhoven University of Technology dean@stack.nl | dean@ipnet6.org | http://www.ipnet6.org/ "This isn't right. This isn't even wrong." -- Wolfgang Pauli
From: Phil Brennan <phil.brennan@gmail.com> Date: May 27, 2005 1:30 PM Subject: Re: cron stops silently To: Dean Strik <dean@stack.nl> On 5/27/05, Dean Strik <dean@stack.nl> wrote:> Phil Brennan wrote: > > Since updating our server to 5.4-STABLE, I've noticed a very strange > > problem with cron. > > Sometimes it just decides to stop, for no apparent reason. It stops at > > different times, it doesn't seem to be affected by any particular > > cronjob. > > There are no messages about this in any logfile, it just stops running > > and I have to start it manually. Obviously this is a major PITA. Can > > anyone help me to debug this problem further? I really don't know > > where to look. Searches of all freebsd mailing lists have turned up > > with nothing. > > I just filed PR 81555 about this. For me, it appears that cron(8) exits > after a SIGPIPE when an LDAP-user does a crontab -e. Are you also using > LDAP here? See also the PR (hasn't appeared on the website when I type > this btw). > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=81555 > > -- > Dean C. Strik Eindhoven University of Technology > dean@stack.nl | dean@ipnet6.org | http://www.ipnet6.org/ > "This isn't right. This isn't even wrong." -- Wolfgang Pauli >aha, I had a faint suspicion that was it. Yes, I'm using ldap, and I've just managed to reproduce the problem. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with nss_ldap, I haven't rebuilt it since moving from 5.2.1-Release to 5-STABLE. Did you do a fresh install or an upgrade? Regards, Philip