Path to 'mail' incorrect in /etc/nagios2/commands.cfg

[Erik Forsberg]

Binary package hint: nagios2

/etc/nagios2/commands.cfg defines several commands used as service_notification_command and host_notification_command. Unfortunately, the path to the program used to send mail is wrong - it's set to /bin/mail, should be /usr/bin/mail, at least with the 'mailx' program which seems to be the best candidate.

# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04
Release: 8.04

# apt-cache policy nagios2
nagios2:
  Installed: 2.11-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.11-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.11-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://se.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Lionel Porcheron (lionel.porcheron)]

Thanks for the bug report and the patch. Looks a good candidate for SRU.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

I looked into it and this problem is the result of several problems in the package building.

debian/rules calls configure with --use-mail=/usr/bin/mail so Nagios should generate default config files with the good pointer.
However there is no mailx | mailutils in the build dependencies so, when configure doublechecks it, it goes back to the default (/bin/mail).
Therefore the default configs are generated with /bin/mail rather than /usr/bin/mail.

It would be sufficient to add mailx | mailutils in the build dependencies if there weren't a new round of patching done afterwards with cfg-commands.cfg.diff. This diff-file needs to be changed too to keep track of the changes.

I'll do a debdiff and check if the problem is still there in nagios3.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

This was fixed in nagios3 (upstream fixed the configure script so that it no longer ignores --use-mail, no need to add mailx | mailutils as build dep). I backport the fix for nagios2.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Here is the debdiff with the configure fix (backported from Nagios 3) and fixup of the cfg-commands.cfg.diff file so that it doesn't break with the new contents. Not sure this is SRU material though -- the problem being in a configuration file, in an off-by-default notification...

[Mathias Gug (mathiaz)]

Subscribing the motu-sru team as outlined on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates. Once motu-sru has acked the proposal, subscribe the ubuntu-universe-sponsor team to sponsor your debdiff.

You should also target hardy-proposed instead of hardy in your changelog.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Fixed debdiff with hardy-proposed as a target.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

I need to work more on this, especially since there is a security update in the pipe that I should merge in. MOTU-sru, feel free to unsubscribe...

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Minimal patch from 2.11-ubuntu1.2 version.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Minimal patch from 2.11-ubuntu1.2 version, added proper patch attribution to Erik.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Bug Impact: nagios2 is configured by default with notification commands that make use of /bin/mail rather than /usr/bin/mail. That forces all Nagios users to fix this default configuration file if they want to make use of mail-based notifications (which is a very common use case). This is more a "user experience of Ubuntu integration" bug, and it can easily be workaround-ed with a one-time config file fix.

Affected supported releases: feisty, gutsy, hardy. Given the type of bug (only first-time installs affected) I would propose SRU-ing it for hardy only.

Development branch fix: nagios3 is shipped with Intrepid. This series has a configure file fix that allows to generate correct default configuration files in the build process.

Minimal patch: see previous comment.

TEST CASE:
$ sudo apt-get install nagios2
$ grep mail /etc/nagios2/commands.cfg
[ shows that commands.cfg calls /bin/mail for notification commands, should be /usr/bin/mail ]

I can also provide a more complex test case (involving Nagios configuration) where those notifications would be used and trigger an error message.

Regression potential discussion:
This update only impacts the commands.cfg file, to replace occurences of /bin/mail with /usr/bin/mail. I don't think it could break anything.

[Cody A.W. Somerville (cody-somerville)]

Ack.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

No nagios2 in intrepid, so this is "fixed" in the development release. nagios3 doesn't have this bug.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

Combined SRU with bug 252686

[Luca Falavigna (dktrkranz)]

Uploaded to hardy-proposed as 2.11-1ubuntu1.3.

[Jonathan Riddell (jr)]

accepted into hardy-proposed, please test

[ShadowMax76 (shadowmax76)]

Verification done (x86):

- nagios2 2.11-1ubuntu1.2 (hardy): /bin/mail.
- nagios2 2.11-1ubuntu1.3 (hardy-proposed): /usr/bin/mail.

[Luca Falavigna (dktrkranz)]

I can confirm version 2.11-1ubuntu1.3 correctly provides /usr/bin/mail in configuration file.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Copied to hardy-updates.