My user (alain) have only access to a subset of command under sudo (sudo group
is empty), so I check as root.
root@nomade: ~# systemctl edit email-reminder-collect.service
Successfully installed edited file
'/etc/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service.d/override.conf'.
root@nomade: ~# systemctl start email-reminder-collect.service
root@nomade: ~# systemctl status email-reminder-collect.service
○ email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service;
static)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2026-07-22 06:40:32 CEST; 58s ago
Invocation: fdd1f973d208480287be9e0807708684
Process: 3336766 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders (code=exited,
status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3336864 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders --verbose
(code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3336871 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/find /var/spool/email-reminder/
-name .* -prune -o -type f -exec /usr/bin/chown email-reminder {} +
(code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 3336864 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Mem peak: 8.7M
CPU: 137ms
juil. 22 06:40:32 nomade systemd[1]: Starting email-reminder-collect.service -
Collect email reminders...
juil. 22 06:40:32 nomade collect-reminders[3336864]: Found alain
(1000:/bin/bash) with homedir '/home/alain'
juil. 22 06:40:32 nomade collect-reminders[3336864]: Found these local home
directories: [{/home/alain 1000}]
juil. 22 06:40:32 nomade collect-reminders[3336864]: No reminders in
'/home/alain'
juil. 22 06:40:32 nomade systemd[1]: email-reminder-collect.service:
Deactivated successfully.
juil. 22 06:40:32 nomade systemd[1]: Finished email-reminder-collect.service -
Collect email reminders.
root@nomade: ~# ls -ld /var/spool/email-reminder/
drwxrwx--- 3 email-reminder root 4096 21 juil. 09:11 /var/spool/email-reminder/
root@nomade: ~# ls -lh /home/alain/.email-reminders
-rw-r--r-- 1 alain alain 8,0K 21 juil. 08:38 /home/alain/.email-reminders
root@nomade: ~# grep email-reminder /etc/passwd
email-reminder:x:111:65534:Email-reminder
mailer,,,:/var/spool/email-reminder:/bin/false
root@nomade: ~# ls -ld /home/alain/
drwx------ 59 alain alain 4096 21 juil. 09:44 /home/alain/
Seeing that it did not find /home/alain/.email-reminders file, for testing, I
play with /home/alain permission.
It was needed to give read and execute permission to other to get 'systemctl
start email-reminder-collect.service' works as expected.
root@nomade: ~# ls -ld /home/alain/
drwx---r-x 59 alain alain 4096 21 juil. 09:44 /home/alain/
root@nomade: ~# systemctl start email-reminder-collect.service
root@nomade: ~# systemctl status email-reminder-collect.service
○ email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service;
static)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2026-07-22 08:24:50 CEST; 4s ago
Invocation: 3568964ced8047fea59899fa38afe48c
Process: 380441 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders (code=exited,
status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 380447 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders --verbose
(code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 380454 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/find /var/spool/email-reminder/
-name .* -prune -o -type f -exec /usr/bin/chown email-reminder {} +
(code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 380447 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Mem peak: 9.3M
CPU: 85ms
juil. 22 08:24:50 nomade systemd[1]: Starting email-reminder-collect.service -
Collect email reminders...
juil. 22 08:24:50 nomade collect-reminders[380447]: Found alain
(1000:/bin/bash) with homedir '/home/alain'
juil. 22 08:24:50 nomade collect-reminders[380447]: Found these local home
directories: [{/home/alain 1000}]
juil. 22 08:24:50 nomade collect-reminders[380447]: Copied
'/home/alain/.email-reminders' to '/var/spool/email-reminder/1000'
juil. 22 08:24:50 nomade systemd[1]: email-reminder-collect.service:
Deactivated successfully.
juil. 22 08:24:50 nomade systemd[1]: Finished email-reminder-collect.service -
Collect email reminders.
It looks like if search of .email-remiders files was not done as root even if
usr/sbin/collect-reminders is launched as root (I do not get the 'This script
must be run as root.' error).
--
Jack.R
