Your message dated Thu, 18 Dec 2025 15:49:49 +0000
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Bug#1120956: fixed in anacron 2.3-46
has caused the Debian Bug report #1120956,
regarding anacron: Add support for checking scripts
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact [email protected]
immediately.)
--
1120956: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1120956
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: anacron
Version: 2.3-43
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected]
Dear Maintainer,
The other day I made a change to a script that broke it but I decided to fix it
later. Much to my surprise I noticed next week that journal was flooded with
hourly errors from anacron!
Nov 13 07:32:59 host anacron[1606932]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 07:37:59 host anacron[1606932]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 08:31:45 host anacron[1607068]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 08:31:45 host anacron[1607068]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 09:33:15 host anacron[1607245]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 09:33:15 host anacron[1607245]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 10:32:15 host anacron[1607501]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 10:32:15 host anacron[1607501]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 11:34:05 host anacron[1607662]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 11:34:05 host anacron[1607662]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 12:34:55 host anacron[1607893]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 12:34:55 host anacron[1607893]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 13:34:00 host anacron[1608052]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 13:34:00 host anacron[1608052]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 14:34:03 host anacron[1608198]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 14:34:03 host anacron[1608198]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 15:32:15 host anacron[1608439]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 15:32:15 host anacron[1608439]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 16:32:56 host anacron[1608607]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 16:32:56 host anacron[1608607]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 17:33:15 host anacron[1608769]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 17:33:15 host anacron[1608769]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 18:33:15 host anacron[1608941]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 18:33:15 host anacron[1608941]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 19:30:34 host anacron[1609090]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 19:30:34 host anacron[1609090]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 20:33:07 host anacron[1609232]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 20:33:07 host anacron[1609232]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 21:31:02 host anacron[1609414]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 21:31:02 host anacron[1609414]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 22:31:34 host anacron[1609579]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 22:31:34 host anacron[1609579]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
Nov 13 23:32:07 host anacron[1609725]: /etc/anacrontab: Unknown named period on
line 13, skipping
Nov 13 23:32:07 host anacron[1609725]: Can't find sendmail at
/usr/bin/sendmail, not mailing output
That's just one day. Look at the whole week:
$ journalctl --identifier=anacron --since=-1week --priority=err | wc --lines
230
It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Turns out the script was
used in one of my @weekly anacrontab commands. Anacron tries to mail output
because my script failed. I still don't know what that unknown named period
message is about. The big issue is that anacron can't detect if a script
changed after it was added as a job. Please add this feature to at least make
the error messages more clear.
Thanks,
Henri
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.1
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.48+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8),
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages anacron depends on:
ii libc6 2.41-12
Versions of packages anacron recommends:
ii cron [cron-daemon] 3.0pl1-197
Versions of packages anacron suggests:
pn default-mta | mail-transport-agent <none>
pn powermgmt-base <none>
ii rsyslog [system-log-daemon] 8.2504.0-1
-- Configuration Files:
/etc/anacrontab changed [not included]
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Source: anacron
Source-Version: 2.3-46
Done: Lance Lin <[email protected]>
We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
anacron, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.
A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [email protected],
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Lance Lin <[email protected]> (supplier of updated anacron package)
(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing [email protected])
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:17:11 +0700
Source: anacron
Architecture: source
Version: 2.3-46
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Lance Lin <[email protected]>
Changed-By: Lance Lin <[email protected]>
Closes: 1120956
Changes:
anacron (2.3-46) unstable; urgency=medium
.
[ Henri P ]
* Add support for checking scripts (Closes: #1120956)
.
[ Lance Lin ]
* d/control: Remove redundant Rules-Requires-Root field
* d/watch: Update to version 5
* anacron.8: Update for new commandline options
* anacrontab.5: Update for new job description forms
* d/tests/unittests: Add new options testing and return exit code
Checksums-Sha1:
4f8529b148dedeed84d50de8aacb7b0aec12db0e 1826 anacron_2.3-46.dsc
b3ffd675af02882b93f305466fe88eed8c86bf95 40096 anacron_2.3-46.debian.tar.xz
b20f53937be7eb481998e5a0c9254c0bdc6c56db 6040 anacron_2.3-46_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
ea6d3fe26f3dde9248dbea5457bd522c1429700ac490d4fc7e30e586136450f8 1826
anacron_2.3-46.dsc
3b47f90bbf186d38fea86ec11c490257d7c0e23c271e386e4f691567e6a8cd11 40096
anacron_2.3-46.debian.tar.xz
080611d3fe7d2a18b05f4314b32bce879f905b83caaaef2d77ba49d7b995071e 6040
anacron_2.3-46_amd64.buildinfo
Files:
6f6189aff9ce776232c4b6f5bff50387 1826 admin optional anacron_2.3-46.dsc
b7aeb32f5508c8357bac0785adeb933f 40096 admin optional
anacron_2.3-46.debian.tar.xz
50c4a4d61e30daff84893ac71b4676af 6040 admin optional
anacron_2.3-46_amd64.buildinfo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----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=482I
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
pgpwlNB1JoGAN.pgp
Description: PGP signature
--- End Message ---
