Set up a hourly cron job that does journalctl -q -p err --cursor-file=/var/log/journal/cron.hourly and crond (or a custom timer if you want) will mail you a report of all error+ level log messages.
On Sat, 1 Aug 2026, 20:45 Felix E. Klee <[email protected]> wrote: > Using a toplevel override, I set up email notification on service fail: > > # /etc/systemd/system/service.d/toplevel-override.conf > [Unit] > OnFailure=failure-notification@%n > > Now, every time a service fails to start, I get an email, on every > single restart attempt. This can result in many emails. In fact, if > `StartLimitBurst` is not set, I would get mailbombed by my server. > > Therefore, I am thinking about a different solution that does not have > the mailbomb risk: A timer that sends an email if there is a failed > service. Having the timer trigger every hour would be sufficient. It > certainly would be better than getting no notification at all. > > *Am I reinventing the wheel? Isn’t there already something that solves > the problem?* >
