Running mrtg on FreeBSD

[Ian Smith]

Re: freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 114, Issue 23
 > Message: 6

 > Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 05:25:26 -0500
 > From: "matt ." <fasterdisco at gmail.com>

 > On 11/26/05, Glenn Dawson <glenn at antimatter.net> wrote:
 > >
 > > At 05:24 PM 11/26/2005, matt . wrote
 > > I don't think it's a bug in the port.  I've installed it many times
 > > recently and not had any problems.
 > >
 > > What version of Perl are you using?  Version of FreeBSD?
 > >
 > > It looks as if the FindBin perl module is failing to find the correct
 > > location of the mrtg script, which then causes it to look for rateup
 > > in the wrong place.

Yes, specifically it seems to be returning '' instead of
'/usr/local/bin' which was to be prepended to '/rateup'

[.. system and perl versions ..]

 > The only thing the same is the version of my MRTG port.
 > 
 > I was unable to find the which module installs FindBin.  I checked
 > freshports.org and didn't find any port specifically related to anything
 > called FindBin.  Thanks.
 > 
 > matt

[..]

 > > > > Still seeing the same error.  I created /usr/local/www/mrtg owned by
 > > > > mrtg:mrtg.  I run the following in mrtg's crontab:
 > > > >
 > > > > */5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/mrtg /usr/local/etc/mrtg/mrtg.cfg
 > > > > --debug=cfg,dir --logging /var/log/mrtg.log
 > > > >
 > > > > And I see the debug check the config and dir structures ok:
 > > > >
 > > > > 2005-11-26 19:58:00 -- --dir: ensure path IN:  '/usr/local/www/mrtg'
 > > > > 2005-11-26 19:58:00 -- --dir: ensure path OUT: '/usr/local/www/mrtg/'
 > > > > 2005-11-26 19:58:00 -- --dir: imagehtml =
 > > > > 2005-11-26 19:58:00 -- Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.)
 > > or
 > > > > string at /usr/local/bin/mrtg line 720.
 > > > > 2005-11-26 19:58:00 -- Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.)
 > > or
 > > > > string at /usr/local/bin/mrtg line 720.
 > > > > 2005-11-26 19:58:00 -- ERROR: Can't Execute '/rateup'
 > > > >
 > > > > Still trying to execute /rateup.  This works flawlessly when run by
 > > root.
 > > > > I don't get it.

Smells like permissions, if root can, and mrtg:mrtg can't ..

 > > > > Here is line 720 of /usr/local/bin/mrtg:
 > > > >
 > > > > ((($MRTG_lib::OS eq 'NT' or $MRTG_lib::OS eq 'OS2') and (-e
 > > > > "${FindBin::Bin}${MRTG_lib::SL}rateup.exe")) or
 > > > >      (($MRTG_lib::OS eq 'NW') and (-e "SYS:/Mrtg/bin/rateup.nlm")) or
 > > > >      (-x "${FindBin::Bin}${MRTG_lib::SL}rateup")) or
 > > > >        die "ERROR: Can't Execute
 > > > > '${FindBin::Bin}${MRTG_lib::SL}rateup'\n";

Assuming FindBin::Bin and/or MRTG-lib::SL doesn't need to run as root
(?), maybe not all of /usr, /usr/local and /usr/local/bin are world
readable/executable (o+rx), or maybe rateup itself isn't executable by
mrtg:mrtg?

Just a hunch, cheers, Ian