This is a little verbose, but see my running commentary marked with *** in my system output. beldin root # emerge depclean --pretend Calculating depclean dependencies ... done! >>> These are the packages that I would unmerge: app-admin/syslog-ng selected: 1.6.4 protected: none omitted: none >>> 'Selected' packages are slated for removal. >>> 'Protected' and 'omitted' packages will not be removed. *** Since I've been making some changes to my system, I decided to run emerge depclean to see what it thinks is not needed anymore. In the output, I see that it wants to remove syslog-ng. This doesn't seem right to me so I decide to investigate. I don't have it in my world file, but it is listed in /etc/portage/virtuals as providing virtual/logger. beldin root # /etc/init.d/syslog-ng stop * Stopping vixie-cron... [ ok ] * Stopping syslog-ng... [ ok ] *** Okay, it looks like vixie-cron relies on it so let's see what happens beldin root # env CONFIG_PROTECT="-*" emerge unmerge vixie-cron syslog-ng app-admin/syslog-ng selected: 1.6.4 protected: none omitted: none sys-apps/vixie-cron selected: 3.0.1-r4 protected: none omitted: none >>> 'Selected' packages are slated for removal. >>> 'Protected' and 'omitted' packages will not be removed. >>> Waiting 5 seconds before starting... >>> (Control-C to abort)... >>> Unmerging in: 5 4 3 2 1 >>> Unmerging app-admin/syslog-ng-1.6.4... >>> Unmerging sys-apps/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4... * Caching service dependencies... * GNU info directory index is up-to-date. beldin root # emerge -uDpv system These are the packages that I would merge, in order: Calculating system dependencies ...done! Total size of downloads: 0 kB *** Hmm, I thought cron was required by the system, but I'll look at that later. beldin root # emerge -v vixie-cron Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) sys-apps/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4 to / >>> md5 src_uri ;-) vixie-cron-3.0.1.tar.bz2 >>> Unpacking source... >>> Unpacking vixie-cron-3.0.1.tar.bz2 to /var/tmp/portage/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4/work * Applying vixie-cron-3.0.1-gentoo.patch... [ ok ] * Applying vixie-cron-3.0.1-close_stdin.diff... [ ok ] * Applying crontab.5.diff... [ ok ] >>> Source unpacked. >>> Test phase [not enabled]: sys-apps/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4 >>> Install vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4 into /var/tmp/portage/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4/image/ category sys-apps >>> Completed installing into /var/tmp/portage/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4/image/ >>> Merging sys-apps/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4 to / * Caching service dependencies... * Can't find service 'logger' needed by 'vixie-cron'; continuing... >>> sys-apps/vixie-cron-3.0.1-r4 merged. >>> Recording sys-apps/vixie-cron in "world" favorites file... >>> clean: No packages selected for removal. >>> Auto-cleaning packages ... >>> No outdated packages were found on your system. * GNU info directory index is up-to-date. * IMPORTANT: 1 config files in /etc need updating. * Type emerge --help config to learn how to update config files. beldin root # etc-update beldin root # /etc/init.d/vixie-cron start logger * ERROR: Some services needed are missing. Run * './vixie-cron broken' for a list of those * services. "vixie-cron" was not started. beldin root # /etc/init.d/vixie-cron broken * Re-caching dependency info (mtimes differ)... * Could not get dependency info for "logger"! * Please run: * # /sbin/depscan.sh * to try and fix this. logger *** vixie-cron definitely wants a logger, lets emerge metalog to see what happens. beldin root # emerge -v metalog Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) app-admin/metalog-0.8_pre20031130 to / >>> md5 src_uri ;-) metalog-0.8_pre20031130.tar.gz >>> Unpacking source... >>> Unpacking metalog-0.8_pre20031130.tar.gz to /var/tmp/portage/metalog-0.8_pre20031130/work >>> Source unpacked. >>> Test phase [not enabled]: app-admin/metalog-0.8_pre20031130 >>> Install metalog-0.8_pre20031130 into /var/tmp/portage/metalog-0.8_pre20031130/image/ category app-admin >>> Completed installing into /var/tmp/portage/metalog-0.8_pre20031130/image/ >>> Merging app-admin/metalog-0.8_pre20031130 to / * Buffering is now off by default. Add -a to METALOG_OPTS * in /etc/conf.d/metalog to turn buffering back on. * Caching service dependencies... >>> app-admin/metalog-0.8_pre20031130 merged. >>> Recording app-admin/metalog in "world" favorites file... >>> clean: No packages selected for removal. >>> Auto-cleaning packages ... >>> No outdated packages were found on your system. * GNU info directory index is up-to-date. beldin root # /etc/init.d/vixie-cron start * Starting metalog... [ ok ] * Starting vixie-cron... [ ok ] *** What do you know, it started! Let's move back to syslog-ng beldin root # /etc/init.d/metalog stop * Stopping vixie-cron... [ ok ] * Stopping metalog... [ ok ] beldin root # env CONFIG_PROTECT="-*" emerge unmerge metalog app-admin/metalog selected: 0.8_pre20031130 protected: none omitted: none >>> 'Selected' packages are slated for removal. >>> 'Protected' and 'omitted' packages will not be removed. >>> Waiting 5 seconds before starting... >>> (Control-C to abort)... >>> Unmerging in: 5 4 3 2 1 >>> Unmerging app-admin/metalog-0.8_pre20031130... * Caching service dependencies... * Can't find service 'logger' needed by 'vixie-cron'; continuing... * GNU info directory index is up-to-date. beldin root # emerge -v syslog-ng Calculating dependencies ...done! >>> emerge (1 of 1) app-admin/syslog-ng-1.6.4 to / >>> md5 src_uri ;-) syslog-ng-1.6.4.tar.gz >>> Unpacking source... >>> Unpacking syslog-ng-1.6.4.tar.gz to /var/tmp/portage/syslog-ng-1.6.4/work >>> Source unpacked. >>> Test phase [not enabled]: app-admin/syslog-ng-1.6.4 >>> Install syslog-ng-1.6.4 into /var/tmp/portage/syslog-ng-1.6.4/image/ category app-admin >>> Completed installing into /var/tmp/portage/syslog-ng-1.6.4/image/ >>> Merging app-admin/syslog-ng-1.6.4 to / * Caching service dependencies... >>> app-admin/syslog-ng-1.6.4 merged. >>> Recording app-admin/syslog-ng in "world" favorites file... >>> clean: No packages selected for removal. >>> Auto-cleaning packages ... >>> No outdated packages were found on your system. * GNU info directory index is up-to-date. beldin root # /etc/init.d/vixie-cron start * Starting syslog-ng... [ ok ] * Starting vixie-cron... [ ok ] beldin root # Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Do not have a system logger installed (i.e syslog-ng, metalog, sysklogd) 2. emerge vixie-cron 3. run /etc/init.d/vixie-cron start 4. Watch it complain highly about missing dependency Actual Results: Unable to run vixie-cron until a system logger is installed. Expected Results: The emerge of vixie-cron should pull in a system logger based upon virtual/logger Portage 2.0.51_pre13 (default-x86-2004.2, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r0, 2.6.7-gentoo-r11 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine)) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.7-gentoo-r11 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r3 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.14.90.0.8-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache fixpackages sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/ http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X acpi alsa apm arts artswrappersuid avi berkdb cdr crypt cups encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif gtk gtk2 i8x0 imap imlib java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad mbox mikmod mmx motif mozilla mpeg ncurses nls oggvorbis opengl oss pam pda pdflib perl png ppds python qt readline samba sdl slang spell sse ssl svga tcltk tcpd tiff truetype usb x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib linguas_en"
Add syslog-ng to your world file or just remerge it without --oneshot. There's no reason for vixie-cron to rdepend on virtual/logger.
You can leave this closed if you wish, but I respectfully disagree. A system logger is explicity required by the /etc/init.d/vixie-cron startup script. While I personally can't fathom a reason to run a system without a logger, it isn't required that one be run. Since it isn't a requirement that a logger be installed on a system, and the fact that vixie-cron explictly requires it in order to run, it seems to me that it should be listed as a runtime dependency. Isn't that what the RDEPEND variable is supposed to be used to indicate? (As a side note, yes I placed it into my world file)
Reopening with the correct issue. vixie-cron, dcron, and fcron have 'need logger' in their depend section of the startup script. This means that if for some reason a system logger is not installed, the startup script will not execute due to the missing dependency. Since a system logger isn't required to actually run cron, the depend section of the startup scripts should be changed to be 'use logger' I have tested all three crons and they operate correctly when a system logger is not running on the system.
Created attachment 36196 [details, diff] dcron.rc6.patch
Created attachment 36197 [details, diff] fcron.rc6.patch
Created attachment 36198 [details, diff] vixie-cron.rc6.patch
fixed in cvs, thanks
