Re: No email output - cfengine-2.1.14 - solution

[David E. Nelson]

Apparently, cfexecd does not understand 'EmailMaxLines = ( inf )' as documented 
in the CFEngine reference as it's set to 'max:20' below.

cfpopen(/var/cfengine/bin/cfagent -Q 
smtpserver,sysadm,fqhost,ipaddress,EmailMaxLines,EmailFrom,EmailTo -D 
from_cfexecd)
<snip>
EmailMaxLines/inf
<snip>
Got(to:david.nelson@natinst.com,serv:mailmass.natinst.com,host:choctaw.natinst.com,ip:130.164.11.190,max:20,from:)

The documentation also states that if 'EmailMaxLines' is undefined, it defaults 
to '100' which is also incorrect.

~~~~~

Ok, now for the embarrassing part.  I'm including it here for the future 
generations of CFEngine users so that the same mistake isn't made again.

Do _not_, under any circumstances use:

processes:
    "cfexecd"
      matches=1
      signal=term
      restart "/var/cfengine/bin/cfexecd"

instead, as documented in the CFEngine tutorial, use:

processes:
    "cfexecd$" <-- Very important to specify a '$'
      restart "/var/cfengine/bin/cfexecd"

Apparently what was going on was that I was inadvertently killing my cfexecd's 
before the 'outputs' directory could be updated and subsequently emailed.

This may also explain the problems I was seeing with RH and multiple 'cfexecd's 
hanging around.  As Mark says, CFEngine won't do anything unless you tell it 
to. ;)

Since making the above 'processes' changes, I don't think I've been so happy to 
see so many CFEngine emails show up.

Thanks everybody for your feedback, patience, and suggestions,

         /\/elson

--
~~ ** ~~ 4 out of 3 people have problems with fractions ~~ ** ~~