launchd and periodic: mail does not get sent

I don't know what the problem is but you could try following Michael Conniff's advice from that thread you mention. instead of using /etc/periodic.conf modify the file /usr/sbin/periodicand add a command to it to mail the output of the daily script to you.

Here is what happened to me:
I don't seem to be able to send mail from the periodic system
tasks that run daily or weekly when managed by launchd.

Due to OS corruption I had to do a clean install. In the previous
incarnation of the OS I used anacron and did not have a problem
with generating the email messages.

I can also execute /usr/sbin/periodic daily directly as root and
the email will be generated.

Contents of daily.local:
********************
bash-3.2# cat /etc/daily.local
#!/bin/sh
# sync wiki data with server
/usr/local/bin/pullFromServer

export HOME=/var/root
/usr/bin/printenv
/usr/bin/mail -s "Daily Cron Job" jerry <<DOC
Daily Cron ran on `/bin/date`
DOC
********************
Tail of daily.out
********************
Running daily.local:
receiving file list ... done

sent 76 bytes received 4245 bytes 8642.00 bytes/sec
total size is 712305 speedup is 164.85
host=mbp
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin
PWD=/var/spool/fax
HOME=/var/root
SHLVL=3
_=/usr/bin/printenv

-- End of daily output --
************************

The system log contains these complaints when the periodic
tasks are run.

bash-3.2# cat system.log | grep apple.periodic
Nov 21 03:16:47 mbp com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.periodic-daily[1904]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 1969 PPID 1 sendmail
Nov 22 08:10:08 mbp com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.periodic-daily[2286]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 2379 PPID 1 sendmail
Nov 22 08:22:39 mbp com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.periodic-weekly[2287]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 2465 PPID 1 sendmail
Nov 23 08:21:33 mbp com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.periodic-daily[5588]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 5660 PPID 5656 postdrop
Nov 23 08:21:33 mbp com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.periodic-daily[5588]): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 5656 PPID 1 sendmail

**************************

There are no entries in the mail log file at the time the periodic tasks are run.

Any suggestions on how to fix the problem?

Jerry

Jerry Levan1 wrote:
Any suggestions on how to fix the problem?

Jerry

The problem:

launchd is killing the mail process before it can send the email because it considers it a stray child process.

That is what this line is telling you:

"Nov 21 03:16:47 mbp com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.periodic-daily1904): Stray process with PGID equal to this dead job: PID 1969 PPID 1 sendmail"

The solution:

I added the following to my com.apple.periodic-daily.plist and the daily run output started being mailed to me again...

<key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
<true/>

Like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.
com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
 <key>Label</key>
 <string>com.apple.periodic-daily</string>
 <key>ProgramArguments</key>
 <array>
 <string>/usr/sbin/periodic</string>
 <string>daily</string>
 </array>
 <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
 <true/>
 <key>Nice</key>
 <integer>1</integer>
 <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
 <dict>
 <key>Hour</key>
 <integer>3</integer>
 <key>Minute</key>
 <integer>15</integer>
 </dict>
 <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key>
 <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Make sure you unload and load com.apple.periodic-daily.plist after you make the change so it is seen by launchd...

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-daily.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-daily.plist

Further details at:

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2005/tn2083.html#SECCAREFULWITHTHATFORKEU GENE

Cheers,

Darrell