logwatch/SMTP problem resolved, plus one more question about cron tasks

[Alison Chaiken <alchaiken@gmail.com>]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions regarding my logwatch
problem, which I am happy to say I have now fixed.

The main problem was that Debian, unlike Fedora, does not
automatically include logwatch.   Therefore I was convinced that I
must use the preinstalled and similarly named logrotate to email
myself system logs, so naturally the man page that I read had
unfamiliar options, so I was confused.

The solution to the problem was therefore to install logwatch, to
minimally edit its config files, and add it to /etc/cron.daily.   The
logwatch emails from my NAT'ed laptop were going to my SPAM folder, so
I had to reconfigure my mailer to solve that problem.    I'm still not
getting messages from rkhunter, so that I will have to investigate
further.

A lingering question is, should I edit root's crontab to run my backup
script, or just put it in /etc/cron.<frequency>?    As far I can tell,
root should always use /etc/cron.<frequency> and users are forced to
use "crontab -e" since they can't edit /etc.    Is this correct?   Or
is using root's crontab sometimes indicated?

Thanks again,
Alison

-- 
Alison Chaiken
(650) 279-5600  (cell)
             http://www.exerciseforthereader.org/
"Laws only declare rights; they do not deliver them." Happy Birthday, Dr. King.