Error in tempdir() using /var/cache/logwatch/logwatch.XXXXXXXX: Could not create directory /var/cache/logwatch/logwatch.pEfaDfD1: Permission denied at ../..//usr/share/logwatch/scripts/logwatch.pl line 800


/var/cache/logwatch folder permissions are set to 755.

if logwatch is run manually i generates a report and emails it.


logwatch running as part of the cronjob fails with the above message.

any help would be appreciated.

Are you running it manually as the same user you have the crontab set for, sounds like the user attempting to run doesn't have permission to right to the log file.

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

It would help to know what distribution/version you are running as well as how you setup the cronjob.

May distributions configure logwatch to run via /etc/cron.daily.

I had run it with the same user as has been configured in the cron ...viz. root

while the cron job fails ..the manual run is able to generate a report .


I have checked it is not a permissions issue for the user.

I had run manually with the same user previeleges as that of the cron job i.e. user root.

I don't see it as a case of permissions.


some times i see "Error in tempdir() using /var/cache/logwatch/logwatch.XXXXXXXX: Could not create directory /var/cache/logwatch/logwatch.pEfaDfD1: Permission denied at ../..//usr/share/logwatch/scripts/logwatch.pl line 800"

at other times no log entry ...but end result is the same am not getting a logwatch report emailed to me ...we can safely ruleout any issues with postfix which my email server.

i had even ran the logwatch with perl debugger enabled in manual mode ...i don't see any anamolies ...or issues ...it was able to run successfully.


any other pointers, hints for troubleshooting are welcome

Sounds like you need to run it from cron with a few judicious print statements around that point.
Possibly use this http://search.cpan.org/~mjd/Devel-Trace-0.12/Trace.pm or this http://search.cpan.org/~mob/Devel-Du...l/DumpTrace.pm