Help setting up cron to send me emails

Gumper · 2009-12-24 20:06:13

I'm currently using cron to run daily backups of my system and to also run rkhunter. When I was using openSUSE I could set up my email to check my local account. I believe that I need "postfix" to be able to do this so I installed it. What else do I need to do besides having this program installed? When I try to add the local account in kmail it is asking me to select a file location. I'm not sure what file to select here. In openSUSE it was already selected for me. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Kitty · 2009-12-24 20:15:11

What does "echo $MAIL" give you? Also check "ls /var/mail/"

falconindy · 2009-12-24 20:40:28

edit: bah, ignore this.

Last edited by falconindy (2009-12-24 20:41:16)

JuseBox · 2009-12-24 22:24:49

Might want to also check your ISP allowing port 25...

Gumper · 2009-12-25 03:42:49

Kitty wrote:

What does "echo $MAIL" give you? Also check "ls /var/mail/"

Neither command returns anything.

azleifel · 2009-12-25 09:13:23

I'm no expert on postfix and used to rely on the PostFix HostOnly Howto page in the wiki. Unfortunately, that page got deleted a week or so ago and the content doesn't appear to have been copied into either of the other two postfix pages. Anyway, this is the gist of what it contained:

From http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PostFix_HostOnly_Howto (since deleted)

$ pacman -Sy postfix

Check /etc/passwd, /etc/group to make sure that the following shows up:

postfix:x:73:73::/var/spool/postfix:/bin/false

Make sure that the following shows up in /etc/group:

postdrop:x:75:
postfix:x:73:

Edit /etc/postfix/main.cf and add the following:

inet_interfaces = loopback-only
mynetworks_style = host
append_dot_mydomain = no
default_transport = error: Local delivery only!

Edit /etc/rc.conf and add postfix to the daemons list.

Edit /etc/postfix/aliases and add a username to receive root email, i.e. put a
username in for the the following, substituting the desired actual system
account name for USER:

# Person who should get root's mail. Don't receive mail as root!
root:           USER

Run the following command to create a map file for postfix:

$ postalias /etc/postfix/aliases

Create .forward in /root containing the mail address of the user to whom all
mail for root will be forwarded, e.g. USER@localhost

Start the postfix daemon by running

$ postfix check

followed by

$ /etc/rc.d/postfix start

Check /var/log/mail.log for any errors.

Try sending an email:

$ mail -s test USER
this is a test email.
.

Last edited by azleifel (2009-12-25 09:35:58)

Gen2ly · 2009-12-25 13:59:18

Ooop

Last edited by Gen2ly (2009-12-25 14:00:07)

azleifel · 2009-12-25 15:52:23

Me oopsied too. Found the page: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Loc … th_Postfix

anrxc · 2009-12-25 16:06:51

Gumper wrote:

What else do I need to do besides having this program installed? When I try to add the local account in kmail it is asking me to select a file location. I'm not sure what file to select here. In openSUSE it was already selected for me. Any ideas?

The movemail in Thunderbird and Kmail gets the mail from /var/spool/mail/$USER (or some other spool you specify) and moves it to your mailbox. You should configure Postfix properly to deliver the mail there, some configuration options to consider are: mail_spool_directory and mailbox_command (if you choose to use an external MDA like procmail)... actually the article linked above explains the setup.

Alternative to that is to just pipe the output of interesting cronjobs into mailx, and send it to your existing e-mail account. I'm not sure if mailx in [core] can do it, but mailx-heirloom can certainly, with a ~/.mailrc that goes something like this:

set smtp=mail.my-isp.com
set from=user@somehost.tld

... and an example cronjob:

# Daily backup
0 6 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh | mailx -s "Backup report" user@mail.tld

Last edited by anrxc (2009-12-25 16:10:23)

Gumper · 2009-12-26 00:08:42

Thanks for all the help! I'll give your suggestions a try and report back if I have any issues.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-24 20:06:13

Help setting up cron to send me emails

#2 2009-12-24 20:15:11

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#3 2009-12-24 20:40:28

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#4 2009-12-24 22:24:49

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#5 2009-12-25 03:42:49

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#6 2009-12-25 09:13:23

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#7 2009-12-25 13:59:18

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#8 2009-12-25 15:52:23

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#9 2009-12-25 16:06:51

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

#10 2009-12-26 00:08:42

Re: Help setting up cron to send me emails

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