/etc/mailname and cron

[Tony Arnold]

tony B wrote:
> i just got a note from my isp, and the monthly cron job output from my
> machine got mailed to their root account.  i think they don't like that.
> i must have fubar'd some domain stuff during install
> because /etc/mailname had their domain rather than localhost.localdomain
> in it.  I changed the file and tested it by running:

/etc/mailname should contain the fully qualified domain name of your
machine and not localhost.localdomain. I think mail uses mainly when
sending messages to form the from field in outgoing messages. It may
also use it for incoming so that the system know for which domains it is
meant to receive mail for.

> sudo run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly
> 
> It seemed to run ok, but no mail showed up.  If, as I suspect, my isp
> got another copy, there must be something else I need to do.  Or perhaps
> I misunderstand the function of this file.

I suspect ou may have a mail routing problem. Try using mail to send a
message to root (e.g., mail root) and then check your MTA (postfix?)
logs to see where it got delivered.

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold