Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 16:22:43 +0200 From: Mel Flynn <mel.flynn+fbsd.questions@mailing.thruhere.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: stan <stanb@panix.com> Subject: Re: What invokes cricket on FreeBSD Message-ID: <200909031622.43318.mel.flynn%2Bfbsd.questions@mailing.thruhere.net> In-Reply-To: <20090903134107.GA3930@teddy.fas.com> References: <20090903114857.GA635@teddy.fas.com> <20090903133335.GA3884@teddy.fas.com> <20090903134107.GA3930@teddy.fas.com>
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On Thursday 03 September 2009 15:41:07 stan wrote: > On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 09:33:35AM -0400, stan wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 09:22:56AM -0400, stan wrote: > > > On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 01:43:15PM +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote: > > > > stan wrote: > > > > > On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 07:48:57AM -0400, stan wrote: > > > > >> I have inherited a system that uses Cricket on FreeBSD to do some > > > > >> data collection. I have set this up myself in the distnat past, > > > > >> but this time I asked a contractor to set it up. I no longer have > > > > >> access to this contractor, and the toher day, we shut down the > > > > >> system this was running on, and when we rebooted the system, > > > > >> cricket id not resume collecting data. > > > > >> > > > > >> I don't see anyhting in /usr/local/etc/rc.d to start it up, nor do > > > > >> I see anything in /etc/crontag. I don't seen any processes owned > > > > >> by cricket running. > > > > >> > > > > >> In FreeBSD, how is this process noramally invoked? > > > > > > > > > > Sorry to reply to my own message, but I have more data. I did find > > > > > > > > > > -rw------- 1 root wheel 288 Jan 12 2009 /var/cron/tabs/cricke > > > > > > > > > > Which is, I am failry certain, what is _intended_ to invoke the > > > > > cricket process. However, acording to the cricket logs, the last > > > > > time I have an entry is Aug 29th, which was when the machine was > > > > > shut down. So, I decided to try running this command by hand. Now, > > > > > to do so I need to be the cricket user, so I tried to su - cricket. > > > > > I was told that this user was not avaialble. Looking in > > > > > /etc/passwd. I found that this users shell was listed as > > > > > /usr/sbin/nologin. I edited /etc/paswd to change this to /nin/sh, > > > > > but I still get the smae error message when I try to su to that > > > > > user. > > > > > > > > > > What do I need to change to be able to su to this suer, and might > > > > > this be the reason tha it's crontab entry is notbeing run? > > > > > > > > Try: > > > > > > > > # su -m cricket > > > > > > > > although the best way to examine and/or modify that user's crontab > > > > is: > > > > > > > > # crontab -e -u cricket > > > > > > OK, I was able to execute the cricket collector caoomand bu using the > > > su - format, and it ran corectly. > > > > > > Cany anyone sugest what to check to see why cron is not executing this > > > command? I see no evidence of it's running in either the cricket logs' > > > or cron's logs. > > > > > > Thanks. > > > > Repkying to my own message again :-( > > > > > > OK, I found in the cron man page the following: > > > > Before running a command from a per-account crontab file, cron > > checks the status of the account with pam(3) and skips the command if > > the account is unavailable, e.g., locked out or expired. > > > > So, now the question is, how do I unlock that user? > > This gets strnager. I found the pw cammand, which should do thatm but: > > pnoc# pw unlock cricket > pw: user 'cricket' is not locked > > So, how come: > > pnoc# su - cricket > This account is currently not available. Cause cricket doesn't have a valid home directory. However, you can simply copy the /var/cron/tabs/cricket to /tmp. Remove the time colums, then run: su -m cricket /usr/bin/env -i HOME=/nonexistent PATH=/bin:/usr/bin \ /bin/sh /tmp/cricket That's the best approximation of how cron runs the commands. If you don't see anything in the cron logs however, it may be an issue with the timestamps specified not yielding any runs. Then it would help to see the actual crontab file. -- Mel
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