The mailnotify script prints messages while it works. To work with crontab, this needs to be redirected to /dev/null if somebody has a very frequent mailnotify interval. Otherwise the sheer amount of mail will overwhelm. Presently, if the messages are redirected to /dev/null, the error messages get thrown away too. So,

1. The error message and informational message should be distinguished from each other. Error messages need to be sent to STDERR so that general messages can safely be thrown away.
2. Information messages should be displayed (or not) only when the user choose so under control of a command line switch.

Simple diffs as example

20a21,22
> my $debug = @ARGV && $ARGV[0] eq "-d";
> 
25c27
<     print "TWiki mail notification\n";
---
>     $debug && print "TWiki mail notification\n";
39c41
<     print "End Twiki mail notification\n";
---
>     $debug && print "End Twiki mail notification\n";
50c52
<     print "Checking TWiki.$webName\n";
---
>     $debug && print "Checking TWiki.$webName\n";
53c55
<       print "* Error: Web $webName does not exist\n";
---
>       print STDERR "* Error: Web $webName does not exist\n";
59c61
<       print "- Note: Notification list is empty\n";
---
>       $debug && print "- Note: Notification list is empty\n";
92c94
<                   print "- Note: No topics changed since $time\n";
---
>                   $debug && print "- Note: No topics changed since $time\n";
96c98
<               print "- Changed topics since $time: ";
---
>               $debug && print "- Changed topics since $time: ";
121c123
<           print "$bar[0] ";
---
>           $debug && print "$bar[0] ";
131c133
<       print "- Note: Topic list is empty\n";
---
>       $debug && print "- Note: Topic list is empty\n";
134c136
<     print "\n";
---
>     $debug && print "\n";
152c154
<     print "- Sending mail notification to: $notifylist\n";
---
>     $debug && print "- Sending mail notification to: $notifylist\n";
155c157
<       print "- ERROR: Can't send mail\n- End Twiki.$webName\n";
---
>       print STDERR "- ERROR: Can't send mail\n- End Twiki.$webName\n";
157c159
<       print "- End Twiki.$webName, mail notification sent\n";
---
>       $debug && print "- End Twiki.$webName, mail notification sent\n";

-- ManpreetSingh - 20 Sep 2000

Made changes with exception: Use -q switch for quiet mode instead of -d switch for verbose mode. This is to show outbut by default, more userfriendly for first time user.

Commited changes to TWikiAlphaRelease. See also MonitoringSiteActivity.

-- PeterThoeny - 20 Sep 2000

TopicClassification:

FeatureDone