From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 8 11:55:47 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B013C1065670; Mon, 8 Dec 2008 11:55:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Received: from betty.computinginnovations.com (mail.computinginnovations.com [64.81.227.250]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54C278FC0C; Mon, 8 Dec 2008 11:55:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Received: from p28.computinginnovations.com (dhcp-10-20-30-100.computinginnovations.com [10.20.30.100]) (authenticated bits=0) by betty.computinginnovations.com (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id mB8BtUbW083796; Mon, 8 Dec 2008 05:55:33 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from derek@computinginnovations.com) Message-Id: <6.0.0.22.2.20081208055153.02762670@mail.computinginnovations.com> X-Sender: derek@mail.computinginnovations.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.0.22 Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:55:21 -0600 To: Giorgos Keramidas From: Derek Ragona In-Reply-To: <87tz9jzvy3.fsf@kobe.laptop> References: <6.0.0.22.2.20081203192259.0241ef88@mail.computinginnovations.com> <49374418.6060709@FreeBSD.org> <6.0.0.22.2.20081204062415.026b7c80@mail.computinginnovations.com> <87tz9jzvy3.fsf@kobe.laptop> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 081207-0, 12/07/2008), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.94.2-exp/8731/Sun Dec 7 22:31:15 2008 on betty.computinginnovations.com X-Virus-Status: Clean X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-MailScanner-ID: mB8BtUbW083796 X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ComputingInnovations-MailScanner-From: derek@computinginnovations.com X-Spam-Status: No Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Tim Judd , Kris Kennaway , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: what script is whacking root's files X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:55:47 -0000 At 11:33 AM 12/4/2008, Giorgos Keramidas wrote: >On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:30:13 -0600, Derek Ragona > wrote: > > /root is on /dev/da0s1a > > > > This particular server is running in a VM on a vmware esx 3.5 server. > > The server runs fine, but every so often the dot files disappear for > > root. I have not found the behavior to follow a reboot, but some period > > of time. Hence my suspicions it was a periodic script. > >Check your crontab jobs then. > > * Do you have any local changes to the system crontab in > `/etc/crontab'? If yes, what are those changes, and what do the > scripts or other commands they run look like? > > * Do you have a user-specific crontab file for `root' in > `/var/cron/tabs/root'? If yes what does it contain? > >_______________________________________________ Thank you to everyone who made great suggestions. I found the errant script, and it was running out of a cron entry to clean up old mailscanner files. It seems if the directories in the script didn't all exist, and a cd failed, it left the script running in /root. I have since corrected the script to test for the directories existence first. But this was a case of "can't see the forest for the trees" and I do appreciate all the help and suggestions. -Derek -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.