CentOS9 Vs. S-nail

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Now that I have a test CentOS9 system set up, I am trying to get it to send me logwatch reports via email. S-nail is proving very frustrating.
It almost works … But not quite!

The main problem is bogus characters in the logwatch report. Here is a section of the report I get through email:

==================
=20
################### Logwatch 7.5.5 (01/22/21) ####################=20
Processing Initiated: Thu Jan 19 13:31:57 2023
Date Range Processed: yesterday
( 2023-Jan-18 )
Period is day.
Detail Level of Output: 5
Type of Output/Format: email / text
Logfiles for Host: CentOS7.billgee.local
##################################################################=20
=20
——————— Kernel Audit Begin ————————=20

Number of audit daemon starts: 1=20
=20
**Unmatched Entries**
audit: type=3D1403 audit(1674073255.247:3): auid=3D4294967295
ses=3D429=
4967295 lsm=3Dselinux res=3D1: 1 Time(s)
auditd[517]: audit dispatcher initialized with q_depth=3D1200 and 1
act=
ive plugins: 1 Time(s)
=20
———————- Kernel Audit End ————————-=20

=20
——————— Chrony report Begin ————————=20

MS Name/IP address Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample
=
=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
^* server3.17.168.192.IN-AD> 4 6 377 42 -16us[ -23us] ± 9=
716us
Name/IP Address NP NR Span Frequency Freq Skew Offset Std=
Dev
================================

What are all those =20 and =30 strings for? How do I make them go away?

I have been experimenting with a line in /etc/s-nail.rc.

set ttycharset=utf-8

That is the only value for this that produces anything useful. If I set it to charset-7bit or charset-8bit, then s-nail complains about invalid syntax on the “set mta=” line. What????

I just don’t get it. Can someone shed some light on this?

For what it is worth, a test CentOS8 system using mailx (the REAL
mailx!) works perfectly. So do all of my CentOS7 and Fedora systems.

—
===============
Bill Gee

2 thoughts on - CentOS9 Vs. S-nail

  • Hello everyone – I did some more poking at this last night, and I think I have devised a work-around. The basic process is to have logwatch output a file and then call s-nail from a script to send the file.

    Step 1 – Add these lines to /etc/logwatch/conf/logwatch.conf:

    Filename = /temp/logwatchreport.txt Output = file

    Step 2 – Create a shell script named /usr/local/bin/sendlogwatchreport. It simply a call to s-nail:

    /usr/bin/mailx -m /temp/logwatchreport.txt \
    -s “Logwatch report for CentOS7.billgee.local” \
    -r logwatch@CentOS7.billgee.local \
    –batch-mode \
    bgee@campercaver.net

    The “-m” parameter takes the named file and makes it the body of the email message. Note that the default logwatch call to a mailer uses the
    “-t” parameter which expects the input to be a template. The template includes lines at the top which are turned into the email headers for subject, to and from fields.

    Step 3 – Modify /etc/s-nail.rc. This line is changed:

    set asksend changes to unset asksend

    Without this s-nail gets stuck waiting for user input that will never come.

    Step 4 – Add the shell script to the cron.daily list of tasks. I did this by creating a hard link.

    ln /usr/local/bin/sendlogwatchreport /etc/cron.daily/sendlogwatchreport

    More testing is required for this. I think there are some permission problems. I tried to use the /tmp directory, but files that logwatch puts there disappear before the script can use them. Creating /temp with 777 permissions is an attempt to work around this.

    When run from a root prompt, logwatch and sendlogwatchreport result in a nicely readable email message. I am not sure what will happen when anacron runs the process. It will take an overnight cycle to find out.

    ===============
    Bill Gee