I'm trying to set up a `cron` job that will send me mail for some outputs.
In my `crontab` I have the `MAILTO` variable set to my email address,
as well as the directives
* * * * * /bin/date >> /tmp/debug_cron
* * * * * /bin/date >&2
as a test (i.e. a proxy for the command I eventually want to run), but
I'm getting no mail from `cron`. (I do get outptu in the
`/tmp/debug_cron` file.)
My `/var/log/auth.log` file shows many pairs of lines of the form:
Nov 14 17:25:01 myhost CRON[29571]: pam_unix(cron:session): session
opened for user myusername by (uid=0)
Nov 14 17:25:01 myhost CRON[29571]: pam_unix(cron:session): session
closed for user myusername
A new pair of such lines gets added every minute, which coincides with
the timing of my crontab commands. Therefore, it may be that
`pam_unix` is blocking `cron`'s attempt to send me mail? I don't know
how to pursue this possibility further. (I have never done any
PAM-related configuration in my life, so whatever configuration I have
is either what "came out of the box" when I installed Debian, or was
carried out by some program without my intervention.)
(BTW, aside from what I've described above, nothing else in the logs
appears relevant to this question, even remotely so.)
How can I troubleshoot this problem further?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
kj
PS: FWIW, my `/etc/pam.conf` file contains only comments and
whitespace, and here are the contents (excluding comments and
whitespace) of other `pam` relevant config files:
# /etc/pam.d/cron
@include common-auth
session required pam_loginuid.so
session required pam_env.so
session required pam_env.so envfile=/etc/default/locale
@include common-account
@include common-session-noninteractive
session required pam_limits.so
# /etc/pam.d/common-auth
auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so nullok_secure
auth requisite pam_deny.so
auth required pam_permit.so
auth optional pam_cap.so
# /etc/pam.d/common-account
account [success=1 new_authtok_reqd=done default=ignore] pam_unix.so
account requisite pam_deny.so
account required pam_permit.so
# /etc/pam.d/common-session-noninteractive
session [default=1] pam_permit.so
session requisite pam_deny.so
session required pam_permit.so
session required pam_unix.so
