Binary package hint: findutils
If you call findutils' /etc/cron.daily/find as normal user, you'll get no error, but a prompt from "su", which gets called. The label text for the "su" prompt get suppressed, so this is quite confusing, if you call the script (out of curiosity) with your normal user.
If you remove "2>/dev/null" from the call of updatedb, you'll see this:
$ LANG=C /etc/cron.daily/find
rm: cannot remove `/var/cache/locate/locatedb.n': Permission denied
su: must be run from a terminal
/usr/bin/updatedb: 310: cannot create /var/cache/locate/locatedb.n: Permission denied
su: must be run from a terminal
Password:
I'd add a check for user==root at the top of the script (debian/find-cron.daily), like:
# Only allow root to start (preventing "su" prompt, where the label text has been suppressed)
if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]
then
echo "You must be root."
exit 1
fi
Normally, things in /etc/cron* shouldn't be run by regular users. I have marked this as a "wishlist" item. If you can prepare a patch for it, perhaps we can add it for Hardy? Thanks!