Missing perl 'Sys' module in system config summary on focal

[Bryce Harrington]

[Impact]
Logwatch's Sys perl module is optional per distro policy and only used to display current cpu and memory levels, strictly for informational reasons. The warnings issued by Logwatch do not indicate an actual problem, but they do clutter the logwatch report, particularly since they're displayed at the top of the report.

[Test Case]
$ export CODENAME="focal"
$ lxc launch ubuntu:${CODENAME} test-logwatch
$ lxc exec test-logwatch -- bash

# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade -y
# apt-get install -y logwatch

Without the fix, the start of the log will show an error message about Sys::CPU and Sys::MemInfo not being installed. With the fix there will be no error message.

[Regression Potential]

Since logwatch filters logs for errors pertinent to administrators,
standard things to watch out for are undesired changes in this filtering
behavior, such as flagging or failing to flag issues differently than
before, other than the specific messages being filtered with this
change.

[Original Report]
$ sudo logwatch --detail Low --range today --service all --output stdout
 --------------------- System Configuration Begin ------------------------

 No Sys::CPU module installed. To install, execute the command:
    perl -MCPAN -e 'install Sys::CPU'

 No Sys::MemInfo module installed. To install, execute the command:
    perl -MCPAN -e 'install Sys::MemInfo'

    Machine: x86_64
    Release: Linux 5.4.0-40-generic

 ---------------------- System Configuration End -------------------------

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've reproduced this in lxc containers on all supported Ubuntu versions

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

From the upstream bug tracker, sounds like this is something that should be disabled:

"""
Wondering if it is time to simply delete services zz-sys and zz-network from Logwatch:

    Unlike the stated goal of Logwatch (parsing and analyzing system logs) those two services print (or try to print) real-time info about the system. They don't analyze logs.
    They rely on unsupported, deprecated, or obsolete Perl or system commands.
    I'm guessing they no longer work properly on the vast majority of up-to-date systems.
    They are disabled by default, so the vast majority of Logwatch users don't execute them.

There are other commands and methods of obtaining the same info. The info gathered by zz-sys is available from procfs (/proc filesystem) on most Unix/Unix-like (notably including Linux, Solaris, AIX, BSD), but I don't know how standardized the stored names are. Alternatively, and depending on the system, commands like uname, nproc, lscpu, lshw, free, vmstat and others also get the info that zz-sys intended to list.

So I suggest using a cron job to extract the desired info, rather than Logwatch.
"""

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Also, even if enabled it sounds like this doesn't provide much detail:

"""
I installed gcc and Sys::CPU worked.
Sys::MemInfo complained about the lack of Test::More but I installed that too and it worked.

However, I was rather disappointed with the output in Logwatch:

--------------------- System Configuration Begin ------------------------

CPU: 4 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 V2 @ 3.30GHz at 3300MHz
Memory: 2048 MB
Machine: x86_64
Release: Linux 2.6.32-042stab108.8

---------------------- System Configuration End -------------------------

I thought it would provide details about CPU and memory utilisation but instead it’s just some system config details.
"""

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Links to the prior two comments:

https://sourceforge.net/p/logwatch/discussion/1115928/thread/1376ca16/#3380

https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/solved-installing-libgd2-xpm-dev-and-build-essential-in-centos/52302/2

Given this, it sounds like the system configuration system section would best be suppressed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package logwatch - 7.5.4-0ubuntu2

---------------
logwatch (7.5.4-0ubuntu2) groovy; urgency=medium

  [ Bryce Harrington ]
  * d/p/0020-dhcpd-Ignore-lease-age-under-threshold-messages.patch:
    dhcpd: Ignore lease age under threshold messages
    (LP: #1578001)
  * d/p/0019-exim-Handle-self-signed-certs-warnings.patch:
    exim: Handle self-signed certs warnings.
    (LP: #1892269)
  * d/p/0018-audit-Treat-Denial-Errors-same-as-Denied.patch:
    audit: Treat Denial-Errors same as Denied.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0017-audit-Apparmor-DENIED-entries-don-t-always-include-p.patch:
    audit: Apparmor DENIED entries don't always include parent=N.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0015-pam_unix-Ignore-issues-about-etc-securetty-being-mis.patch:
    pam_unix: Ignore issues about /etc/securetty being missing.
    (LP: #1890751)
  * d/p/0014-zz-sys-Suppress-warnings-if-Sys-CPU-or-Sys-MemInfo-a.patch:
    zz-sys: Suppress warnings if Sys::CPU or Sys::MemInfo are missing.
    These are not installed by default in Ubuntu's logwatch packaging.
    (LP: #1890749)
  * d/p/0013-secure-Ignore-warnings-about-gnome-keyring-daemon-it.patch:
    secure: Ignore warnings about gnome-keyring-daemon items already
    registered.
    (LP: #1890752)
  * d/p/0012-postfix-Handle-backwards-compatible-mode.patch:
    postfix: Handle backwards-compatible mode.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0011-postfix-Ignore-Resolved-loghost-to-127.0.0.1.patch:
    postfix: Ignore Resolved loghost to 127.0.0.1.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/control: Update upstream's homepage
    (LP: #1891604)

  [ Lucas Kanashiro ]
  * d/p/0021-audit-use-the-term-ALLOWED-instead-of-Grants.patch:
    audit: use the term ALLOWED instead of Grants.

 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Fri, 21 Aug 2020 01:30:10 +0000

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted logwatch into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/logwatch/7.5.2-1ubuntu1.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted logwatch into bionic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/logwatch/7.4.3+git20161207-2ubuntu1.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-bionic to verification-done-bionic. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-bionic. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted logwatch into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/logwatch/7.4.2-1ubuntu1.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-xenial to verification-done-xenial. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-xenial. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Verified the -proposed packages for xenial, bionic, and focal no longer display the error messages in logwatch reports when the perl Sys module isn't installed, but shows the extra info when it is present on the system.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package logwatch - 7.5.2-1ubuntu1.1

---------------
logwatch (7.5.2-1ubuntu1.1) focal; urgency=medium

  [ Bryce Harrington ]
  * d/p/0020-dhcpd-Ignore-lease-age-under-threshold-messages.patch:
    dhcpd: Ignore lease age under threshold messages
    (LP: #1578001)
  * d/p/0019-exim-Handle-self-signed-certs-warnings.patch:
    exim: Handle self-signed certs warnings.
    (LP: #1892269)
  * d/p/0018-audit-Treat-Denial-Errors-same-as-Denied.patch:
    audit: Treat Denial-Errors same as Denied.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0017-audit-Apparmor-DENIED-entries-don-t-always-include-p.patch:
    audit: Apparmor DENIED entries don't always include parent=N.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0015-pam_unix-Ignore-issues-about-etc-securetty-being-mis.patch:
    pam_unix: Ignore issues about /etc/securetty being missing.
    (LP: #1890751)
  * d/p/0014-zz-sys-Suppress-warnings-if-Sys-CPU-or-Sys-MemInfo-a.patch:
    zz-sys: Suppress warnings if Sys::CPU or Sys::MemInfo are missing.
    These are not installed by default in Ubuntu's logwatch packaging.
    (LP: #1890749)
  * d/p/0013-secure-Ignore-warnings-about-gnome-keyring-daemon-it.patch:
    secure: Ignore warnings about gnome-keyring-daemon items already
    registered.
    (LP: #1890752)
  * d/p/0012-postfix-Handle-backwards-compatible-mode.patch:
    postfix: Handle backwards-compatible mode.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0011-postfix-Ignore-Resolved-loghost-to-127.0.0.1.patch:
    postfix: Ignore Resolved loghost to 127.0.0.1.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0010-00-debspecific-disable-su-reporting-in-secure.diff.patch:
    Use $PATH to determine location of zpool and zfs.
    (LP: #1880211)

  [ Lucas Kanashiro ]
  * d/p/0021-audit-use-the-term-ALLOWED-instead-of-Grants.patch:
    audit: use the term ALLOWED instead of Grants.
    (LP: #1577948)

 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 04:22:00 +0000

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for logwatch has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package logwatch - 7.4.3+git20161207-2ubuntu1.2

---------------
logwatch (7.4.3+git20161207-2ubuntu1.2) bionic; urgency=medium

  [ Bryce Harrington ]
  * d/p/0020-dhcpd-Ignore-lease-age-under-threshold-messages.patch:
    dhcpd: Ignore lease age under threshold messages
    (LP: #1578001)
  * d/p/0018-audit-Treat-Denial-Errors-same-as-Denied.patch:
    audit: Treat Denial-Errors same as Denied.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0017-audit-Apparmor-DENIED-entries-don-t-always-include-p.patch:
    audit: Apparmor DENIED entries don't always include parent=N.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0014-zz-sys-Suppress-warnings-if-Sys-CPU-or-Sys-MemInfo-a.patch:
    zz-sys: Suppress warnings if Sys::CPU or Sys::MemInfo are missing.
    These are not installed by default in Ubuntu's logwatch packaging.
    (LP: #1890749)
  * d/p/0012-postfix-Handle-backwards-compatible-mode.patch:
    postfix: Handle backwards-compatible mode.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0011-postfix-Ignore-Resolved-loghost-to-127.0.0.1.patch:
    postfix: Ignore Resolved loghost to 127.0.0.1.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0010-00-debspecific-disable-su-reporting-in-secure.diff.patch:
    Use $PATH to determine location of zpool and zfs.
    (LP: #1880211)

  [ Karl Stenerud ]
  * d/p/ssh-ignore-disconnected.patch:
    sshd: ignore disconnected from user USER
    (LP: #1644057)

 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 04:21:53 +0000

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package logwatch - 7.4.2-1ubuntu1.1

---------------
logwatch (7.4.2-1ubuntu1.1) xenial; urgency=medium

  [ Bryce Harrington ]
  * d/p/0020-dhcpd-Ignore-lease-age-under-threshold-messages.patch:
      dhcpd: Ignore lease age under threshold messages
      (LP: #1578001)
  * d/p/0018-audit-Treat-Denial-Errors-same-as-Denied.patch:
    audit: Treat Denial-Errors same as Denied.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0017-audit-Apparmor-DENIED-entries-don-t-always-include-p.patch:
    audit: Apparmor DENIED entries don't always include parent=N.
    (LP: #1577948)
  * d/p/0014-zz-sys-Suppress-warnings-if-Sys-CPU-or-Sys-MemInfo-a.patch:
    zz-sys: Suppress warnings if Sys::CPU or Sys::MemInfo are missing.
    These are not installed by default in Ubuntu's logwatch packaging.
    (LP: #1890749)
  * d/p/0012-postfix-Handle-backwards-compatible-mode.patch:
    postfix: Handle backwards-compatible mode.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0011-postfix-Ignore-Resolved-loghost-to-127.0.0.1.patch:
    postfix: Ignore Resolved loghost to 127.0.0.1.
    (LP: #1583705)
  * d/p/0010-00-debspecific-disable-su-reporting-in-secure.diff.patch:
    Use $PATH to determine location of zpool and zfs.
    (LP: #1880211)

  [ Karl Stenerud ]
  * d/p/ssh-ignore-disconnected.patch:
    sshd: ignore disconnected from user USER
    (LP: #1644057)

 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Thu, 03 Sep 2020 04:21:50 +0000