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Anacron job 'cron.daily'

hi

I have etch stable and I'm getting the following root mails:

Code:

/etc/cron.daily/man-db:

mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz is a dangling symlink

Code:

# ls -la /usr/share/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz

ls: /usr/share/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz: No such file or directory

Code:

# cat /etc/cron.daily/man-db

#!/bin/sh

#

# man-db cron daily



set -e



if ! [ -d /var/cache/man ]; then

    # Recover from deletion, per FHS.

    mkdir -p /var/cache/man

    chown man:root /var/cache/man

    chmod 2755 /var/cache/man

fi



# expunge old catman pages which have not been read in a week

if [ -d /var/cache/man ]; then

  cd /

  if ! dpkg-statoverride --list /var/cache/man >/dev/null 2>&1; then

    chown -R man /var/cache/man || true        # just in case

  fi

  start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile /dev/null --startas /bin/sh \

        --oknodo --chuid man -- -c \

        "find /var/cache/man -type f -name '*.gz' -atime +6 -print0 | \

        xargs -r0 rm -f"

fi



# regenerate man database

if [ -x /usr/bin/mandb ]; then

    # --pidfile /dev/null so it always starts; mandb isn't really a daemon,

    # but we want to start it like one.

    start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile /dev/null \

                      --startas /usr/bin/mandb --oknodo --chuid man \

                      -- --no-purge --quiet

fi



exit 0

howto solve this problem ?

If that is the only entry that cron is whining about check what it's linking to and if it doesn't exist delete it.

a dangling symlink means it's not linked to anything, you can safely remove it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yanik (Post 2869049)

a dangling symlink means it's not linked to anything, you can safely remove it.

thx, but where can I delete it ?

An easy way to deal with symlinks is to install 'symlinks' from the repos.

From the symlinks man page:

Code:

It scans directories for symbolic links and lists them on stdout, often revealing flaws in the filesystem tree.

and

Code:

-d causes dangling links to be removed.

you mean, now it's OK ?

Code:

# symlinks -d

symlinks: scan/change symbolic links - v1.2 - by Mark Lord



Usage:  symlinks [-crsv] dirlist



Flags:  -c == change absolute/messy links to relative

        -d == delete dangling links

        -r == recurse into subdirs

        -s == shorten lengthy links

        -v == verbose (show all symlinks)

no, you have to tell it where to look for symlinks.

As root;

Code:

symlinks -d /

I've done:

Code:

symlinks -d /

other_fs: /initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-686

other_fs: /vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-686

other_fs: /initrd.img.old -> boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-4-686

other_fs: /vmlinuz.old -> boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-686

you think, now shoud be OK ?

try your scrpit again :

Code:

/etc/cron.daily/man-db

And see if the error is gone.

I get no errors:

Code:

# /etc/cron.daily/man-db

#

sorry, but this problem still exists.

if I'm doing:

Code:

# /etc/cron.daily/man-db

#

I don't get any errors, but still get these mails:

Code:

/etc/cron.daily/man-db:

mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/ControlPanel.1.gz is a dangling symlink

any other ida, what's wrong ?

I don't know then. I would try to re-create the db as root with:

Code:

mandb -c

thx, it seems to work now.

what happens after this command:

Code:

# symlinks -r -d /

on debian ?