SuperDuper! Failure

[Nick]

Originally Posted by chris_johnsen

Note: I will be describing what I see on my Tiger machine. If you have Leopard some details might be different.

System-based email is in the file /var/mail/username (where username is your user's "short user name"). Mail is really geared towards Internet email, so it does not offer a direct way to check this mailbox. You can, however, import this system email into Mail. Choose File > Import Mailboxes…; select Other (the key phrase here is "mbox file"); click Continue; press ⌘⇧G (Command-Shift-G); type /var; click Go; select mail; click Choose; make sure your short user name is checked in the Items to import list; click Continue; read the displayed info about where to find the imported messages; click Done.

Entourage should also be able to do the job. The key words you want to look for are import and mbox. Then just point it to your /var/mail/username file.

Thanks for the instructions, Chris.

I found daily messages going back over two months (and apparently still ongoing):

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Nick @ nicks-imac.local (Cron Daemon)
Subject: Cron <Nick@nicks-imac> open file:///Users/Nick/Library/Application%20Support/
SuperDuper%21/Scheduled%20Copies/Smart%20Update%20Nick%27s%20HD%20Clone%20from
%20Nick%27s%20HD%201.sdsp/Copy%20Job.app
Date: April 11, 2009 1:15:01 AM EDT
To: Nick @ nicks-imac.local
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

The file /Users/Nick/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Scheduled Copies/Smart Update Nick's HD Clone from
Nick's HD 1.sdsp/Copy Job.app does not exist.









-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


They are all identical, one for each daily backup, coincident with the initiation of each backup, since April 11.


Any idea what they mean (and what is causing them)?

[chris_johnsen]

I do not do (automatically) scheduled backups, so I am not sure.

If your scheduled backups are working despite these emails showing that it is not able to start the "Copy Job" app, then I would guess that these emails are from "left over" scheduler entries that were deleted but somehow left in the crontab. The error in the email seems to indicate that the backup driver app for that scheduled backup it no longer there. I would guess that the whole .sdsp bundle was deleted from the ~/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Scheduled Copies directory.

The app's path seems to indicate that the erroneous entry was for a scheduled backup from "Nick's HD 1" (note the trailing 1) to "Nick's HD Clone". The trailing "1" seems to indicate that you might have had two volumes named "Nick's HD" active at the time this entry was created. SuperDuper! actually identifies each volume its special, unique identifier, not its user visible name. So it is not a problem to have multiple volumes with the same name, but it is probably not very common unless you have just restored a failed internal drive or something.

I will have to defer to Dave as to whether SuperDuper!'s scheduler function can cleanup this bogus looking crontab entry or if it needs to be done by hand to stop your daily of system emails.

[dnanian]

I don't know why an 'extra' crontab entry might be there, but I'd delete your existing schedules, then open Terminal and type:

crontab -r

(followed by return)

Then, start SD! and recreate your schedule(s). That should remove any extra crontab entries and stop the email.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by chris_johnsen

I do not do (automatically) scheduled backups, so I am not sure.

If your scheduled backups are working despite these emails showing that it is not able to start the "Copy Job" app, then I would guess that these emails are from "left over" scheduler entries that were deleted but somehow left in the crontab. The error in the email seems to indicate that the backup driver app for that scheduled backup it no longer there. I would guess that the whole .sdsp bundle was deleted from the ~/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Scheduled Copies directory.

The app's path seems to indicate that the erroneous entry was for a scheduled backup from "Nick's HD 1" (note the trailing 1) to "Nick's HD Clone". The trailing "1" seems to indicate that you might have had two volumes named "Nick's HD" active at the time this entry was created. SuperDuper! actually identifies each volume its special, unique identifier, not its user visible name. So it is not a problem to have multiple volumes with the same name, but it is probably not very common unless you have just restored a failed internal drive or something.

I will have to defer to Dave as to whether SuperDuper!'s scheduler function can cleanup this bogus looking crontab entry or if it needs to be done by hand to stop your daily of system emails.

There's only one volume named "Nick's HD" (it resides on my internal drive). SD! backs it up to a volume (named (appropriately enough) "Nick's HD Clone") on an external drive.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I don't know why an 'extra' crontab entry might be there, but I'd delete your existing schedules, then open Terminal and type:

crontab -r

(followed by return)

Then, start SD! and recreate your schedule(s). That should remove any extra crontab entries and stop the email.

I'll give it a try. (If nothing else, perhaps I'll overcome my FOT ("Fear of Terminal") ).

[Nick]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I don't know why an 'extra' crontab entry might be there, but I'd delete your existing schedules, then open Terminal and type:

crontab -r

(followed by return)

Then, start SD! and recreate your schedule(s). That should remove any extra crontab entries and stop the email.

I followed your instructions, but it didn't help: The very next time I opened Terminal, I was still greeted with "You have mail."

Thinking that I might have made an error, I then re-entered "crontab -r" and hit return. Terminal responded with "crontab: no crontab for Nick". So, it seems that I did do it right...if "right" means getting rid of "crontab" (whatever that file may be).

[dnanian]

You're going to get "You Have Mail" until you delete all the mail that's there. The point was to prevent any more mail from being generated.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by dnanian

You're going to get "You Have Mail" until you delete all the mail that's there. The point was to prevent any more mail from being generated.

I'm not sure whether that's the dumbest question I've ever asked; if not, it certainly is among the Top Ten. In my own (feeble) defense, all I can do is point to (and blame it on) a severe lack of sleep at the time I posted.

Sorry...and thanks!

[dnanian]

It wasn't stupid at all, Nick.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by dnanian

It wasn't stupid at all, Nick.

You're way too kind, Dave.


(BTW: Any suggestions for reference material re: Terminal that won't make my eyes glaze over?)

[dnanian]

Pretty much everything you're going to read about the various shells and commands is going to be dry. But one of the O'Reilly online books might help -- it's not so much Terminal as it is "Unix"...

[sjk]

From Hivelogic - My First PeepCode Screencast: Meet the Command Line:

Meet the Command Line is a 70 minute screencast geared for people who have never used the UNIX command line, or are learning it for the first time.

If you can afford $9.

[dnanian]

Hey, good catch - I'm sure Dan did a good job with that.