local install does not create spool directory

[sblondon]

/usr/local/bin/crontab -l shows this error and returns 0:

/usr/local/var/spool/cron: No such file or directory
/usr/local/var/spool/cron: mkdir: No such file or directory

I compiled the binaries according to the INSTALL file:

./autogen.sh # configure file didn't exist after cloning the repository
make
make install  # as root

In case it's useful:

• lsb_release -a output:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release:	10
Codename:	buster

• build-essential has version 12.6.
• /usr/local/bin/crontab -V output:
  cronie 1.5.4

[t8m]

I think the /var/spool should not be prefixed with /usr/local.

[t8m]

Or not. It's really questionable what is the right way. And I see also a problem with the PAM directory default - which will not match what the system pam library expects.

Anyway patches are welcome.

[ghost]

Getting the same error -> /usr/sbin/crond -x proc

debug flags enabled: proc
/var/spool/cron: No such file or directory
/var/spool/cron: mkdir: No such file or directory

On OpenWrt with:

• kernel 4.19.84
• procd 2019-11-02-f47622e8-4.1
• libpam 1.3.1-1.3

Package cronie (1.5.4-1.3) is installed on root and has the following files:
/etc/cron.d/.keep
/usr/bin/cronnext
/usr/bin/crontab
/usr/sbin/crond
/etc/init.d/cron
/etc/crontabs/.keep

[t8m]

Your problem could/should be solved at the openwrt package - there is no reason why it couldn't ship the /var/spool/cron directory even without cronie not creating it with make install.

[ghost]

@t8m it cannot be resolved in OpenWrt since /var is tmpfs and thus not retained through a node reboot.

Unfortuntely I do not see how to debug this further and to understand what is causing this. Any pointer how to go about it?

[t8m]

If it is not retained then I suppose there should be a boot time script/application that would create it. The systemd-tmpfiles daemon is used for that purpose, however I do not know anything about OpenWrt whether it uses systemd or another init daemon. Anyway not a problem in crond. I do not think crond should create the directory automatically.