Modify usr/sbin/periodic

[newton]

I'm looking at modifying /usr/sbin/periodic to somehow test if there's a problem before sending me emails all the time to just tell me stuff is fine. I think that if I could change the mail subject depending on the results of he outputs, I could filter the mails. I've gotten to the point where I don't even look at the mails if I have other even mildly important tasks to do. Has anyone modified their periodic mails in a way that would cut down on my effort to achieve only problematic outputs?

 

[phoenix]

No need, it's already a feature. Add (and modify) the following to /etc/periodic.conf:

# Don't show output if everything is ok (IOW, only show output for issues/errors)
# Output from security scripts is always shown
daily_show_success="YES"
weekly_show_success="NO"
monthly_show_success="NO"

Read the comments in /etc/defaults/periodic.conf for more info.

There's also some settings where you can hide the separators, so you only get e-mail when there's an issue.