Slow iptables && impatient anacron

["Tony Crawford" <tc-list@crawfords.de>]

Hi Gang!

I have a script in /etc/cron.daily that runs 

iptables -L -v -x -Z|other|stuff|mail root -s "netfilter report"

The first command takes so long to put out its output that cron 
(actually anacron I guess) seems to time out and mails me the 
report:

/etc/cron.daily/stuff:
Null message body; hope that's ok
iptables: Resource temporarily unavailable

Running iptables -L by hand, I see that it's very slow. It takes 
a minute or two to read out the FORWARD chain in particular. 
Even without the -v argument!

The questions:

-- Is that normal behavior for iptables? Or is there something I 
can do to speed it up?

-- Is there an easy way to make cron (or anacron) wait five 
minutes for the output before giving up?

-- Is there anything to be gained by removing anacron and using 
only cron? The system runs 24/7.

This is a potato/bunk system, kernel 2.4.9, with the netfilter 
stuff compiled as modules. 

Anticipatory gratitudes,

Tony

-- 
-- Tony Crawford
-- tc@crawfords.de
-- +49-3341-30 99 99
--