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A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Hi,

I got a a lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages during boot. Sometimes half of screen, sometimes more.  Then the sddm starts. Those messages are not logged anywhere as they are from init (s6). It is probably nothing serious - no crashes. But I'd like to tweak it somehow.

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CPU: 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (-MT MCP-) Kernel: 6.3.4-artix1-1 x86_64 Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.27
I use LXQt+OpenBox and s6 init. I have /var on a separated partition.

Thanks for tips.

Re: A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Reply #1 –
The messages should be in /run/uncaught-logs/current actually. I presume that you do actually have this directory but since /var isn't initially mounted, it cannot be found and thus this message occurs. Eventually startup mounts the partition and it goes away.

Dealing with a separate /var partition is tricky. I haven't thought of a good way to handle it across all usecases yet.

Re: A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Reply #2 –
Can I somehow mount /var earlier? Change order in /etc/fstab is naive, I guess.  :)

OTOH, I don't want to break my system since otherwise it runs well, booting never failed.

Re: A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Reply #4 –
@ lq

I use separeted /var exactly for the reasons mentioned in the article - it's safer and easier to repair when you run out of disk space. I used it 14 years on my linux laptop and it worked well so I made it separated on my new desktop PC too.

Re: A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Reply #5 –
Quote from: lq – on
RTFM:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partitioning#/var
Don't link pointless stuff. What OP is experiencing is a race condition on starting up with s6. In his case, it's ultimately harmless since the service will just retry until it succeeds.

Quote from: Blaazen – on
Can I somehow mount /var earlier? Change order in /etc/fstab is naive, I guess.  :)

OTOH, I don't want to break my system since otherwise it runs well, booting never failed.

What you could do is make cronie-s6 depend on mount-filesystems during bootup. The reason this isn't done in the package is because most people probably don't have a separate /var so it makes sense to try and start it up as early as possible. It would be nicer to take into cases like yours, but I'm not sure how to do that without regressing other people. Maybe I could come up with some kind of oneshot script that checks /var somehow.

Re: A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Blaazen – on
I use separeted /var exactly for the reasons mentioned in the article ...

A separate /var partition only makes sense if it is placed on a separate data carrier and that only if you are running a server.


The screen output at boot time can easily be turned off.

/etc/grub.d/10_linux (Line 149 and 160)
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#	echo	'$(echo "$message" | grub_quote)'

/etc/default/grub
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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet vt.global_cursor_default=0 console=tty2"

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update-grub


Quote from: Dudemanguy – on
Don't link pointless stuff.

You sound just like Grandmaster L.P. ;)
"Wer alles kann, macht nichts richtig"

Artix USE="runit openrc slim openbox lxde gtk2 qt4 qt5 qt6 conky
-gtk3 -gtk4 -adwaita{cursors,themes,icons} -gnome3 -kde -plasma -wayland "
 

Re: A lot of "/var/spool/cron mkdir: directory not exists" messages

Reply #7 –
When you run out of space on / (root) you can have troubles. System is unresponsive, some people experienced even a kernel panic (rare). The most common reasons are 1) too many logs and 2) too many files in /var/cache/pacman/pkg (I experienced only the second). Therefore /var is a candidate for separation. Another candidate is /home because you can reinstall system and keep data.
I'm advocate of separated partitions.