Don't spam root. Log your cronjob output to syslog

*/5 * * * * root /usr/local/nagios/sbin/nsca_check_disk 2>&1 |/usr/bin/logger -t nsca_check_disk

This command will log the output of your simple cronjobs to syslog, and syslog will take it from there. Works great for monitoring scripts which only produce simple output. Advantages: * This can be used by regular users, without modifying system files like /etc/syslog.conf * Reduce cron spam to root@localhost (Please stop spaming the sysadmins) * Uses common tools like syslog (and logrotate) so that you don't need to maintain yet another krufty logfile. * Still ensures that the output is logged somewhere, for posterity. Perhaps it's stored the secure, central syslog server, for example. * Seems to work fine on Ubuntu, CentOS, FreeBSD & MacOSX

Sample Output

% tail /var/log/messages
Apr 29, 17:40:00 192.168.6.19 nsca_check_disk: 1 data packet(s) sent to host successfully.

By: StefanLasiewski

2010-07-02 00:47:05

System Administration cronjob logs logging

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What Others Think

Even better, add something like this to syslog.conf: local0.* /var/log/mycronlog Then use "logger -p local0.info -t Tag " and your log entries will go to their own log file.

SuperFly · 720 weeks ago

However, @SuperFly's command requires that you maintain (and logrotate) yet another logfile, and that you have access to modify `/etc/syslog.conf` .

StefanLasiewski · 553 weeks and 1 day ago

rahimhh21 · 85 weeks and 3 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 76 weeks and 4 days ago

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jeffmoore · 7 weeks and 2 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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