Cron/Sendmail Defunct Processes

[Schiz0]

On Dec 4, 2007 11:31 AM, Adam Funk <a24061 at ducksburg.com> wrote:
> On 2007-12-04, Schiz0 wrote:
>
> > Hey everyone,
> >
> > I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 Server Edition. I have a cron script (
> > http://pastebin.ca/803903 ). I edited crontab using "crontab -e"
> > (Running as the ircd user) and added the line (
> > http://pastebin.ca/805617 ). I have exim4 installed and running (I
> > have send emails successfully from command line and also php scripts).
>
> As what user(s)?
>
>
> > It was installed and configured via apt-get and dpkg.
> >
> > My problem is as follows: When the anope services daemon is not
> > running, the cron script starts it, and outputs some text (Which I
> > want to to be emailed to me). But instead of emailing the output to
> > me, cron opens up defunct zombie processes for sh and sendmail and I
> > must kill the cron process to get rid of other processes.
> >
> > The output of "ps -ef" showing the defunct processes is at
> > http://pastebin.ca/803916
> > The sendmail process stays there until I kill the "/USR/SBIN/CRON" process.
>
> I'd suggest trying the following:
>
> * send mail from the command line as the ircd user;
>
> * send mail from a cron job from your normal account.
>
> There might be a configuration issue that prevents the MTA from
> handling mail correctly from "non-user" accounts.
>

The cron script is running in the "ircd" user's crontab. The "ircd"
user is one I added manually, it's not a system user or anything.
The Anope Services are also running under the ircd user.
Exim4 is running by the /etc/init.d/exim4 script. The output of "ps
aux |grep exim" shows that it is running under the "Debian-exim" user.

I've successfully sent emails via php as the apache user, "www-data",
along with my own user account.

I just now sent mail as the ircd user using the following command:
mail -v -s "Testing Mail" my_emailaddy at gmail.com

I typed a quick message, ended with a . on a new line, and after 30
seconds it's in my gmail inbox.

I also did the same thing as my normal user, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks for the reply and time, I appreciate it.