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Threader Operations

The SCN email threader collects new IMAP email messages to publish to Redmine as tickets. The functionality is implemented in threader.py, is designed to run periodically as a cron job.

Setup Checklist

  1. Configure .env file with IMAP settings
  2. Deploy email threader with crontab
  3. Confirm operation with logging

Threader Configuration: .env file

threader.sh relies on the following environment settings:

  • IMAP_HOST: The IMAP server
  • IMAP_USER: The IMAP username
  • IMAP_PASSWORD : Password for the IMAP user.

These values will be loaded from a .env file in the same directory as threader.py.

To set the values, create (or append to) a .env file with valid entries for the IMAP configuration:

IMAP_HOST=imap.example.com
[email protected]
IMAP_PASSWORD=tHePa$Sw0rd

Once the .env file has been created, the cron settings can be configured.

Threader Deployment: cron

cron is a standard *nix tool for scheduling periodic jobs. threader.py uses cron to run as a stand-alone job every 5 minutes.

To create a new entry for the threader job, use crontab:

sudo crontab -e

and add the following entry to the bottom, to run the threader_job.sh every 5 minutes, and direct the output to system logging with the tag threader:

*/5 * * * * /home/scn/netbot/threader_job.sh | /usr/bin/logger -t threader

Replace /home/scn/netbot above with the actual full path to the threader_job.sh script on the system.

The threader_job.sh exists to make sure the .env file and the venv Python virtual environment are loaded to execute the threader.py code.

All output to stdout and stderr captured and logged to syslog with the tag "threader".

Threader Logs: /var/log/syslog

Logs from executing the threader are set to syslog, which is typically logged to the file /var/log/syslog.

To see the threader logs in syslog, grep is very useful. For example:

grep threader /var/log/syslog

Would result in something like:

Feb 26 18:20:01 hostname CRON[438320]: (root) CMD (/home/scn/netbot/threader_job.sh 2>&1 | /usr/bin/logger -t threader)
Feb 26 18:20:01 hostname threader: 2024-02-26 18:20:01,596 INFO     __main__         starting threader
Feb 26 18:20:01 hostname threader: 2024-02-26 18:20:01,888 INFO     __main__         starting synchronize for imap
Feb 26 18:20:02 hostname threader: 2024-02-26 18:20:02,290 INFO     imap             logged into imap imap.example.com
Feb 26 18:20:02 hostname threader: 2024-02-26 18:20:02,350 INFO     imap             processing 0 new messages from imap.example.com
Feb 26 18:20:02 hostname threader: 2024-02-26 18:20:02,350 INFO     imap             done. processed 0 messages

To filter the logs further, to a specific keyword, timestamp or request-id, pipe through another grep:

grep threader /var/log/syslog | grep '2024-02-26 18:20'

In the above case, "match logs that occur in the minute of 6:20pm UTC on Feb 26th" (by matching that specific string in the log timestamp).

Note that logs are typically configured for UTC, and this might make them seem a few hours off.

To watch the threader logs as they are happening (the above log segment occurs every 5 minutes, based on the cron configuration), the Unix tail command is handy:

tail -f /var/log/syslog | grep threader

will display the latest logs to the console as they occur, and is a convient way to check if the cron is operating at expected. This is where any access or authtentication errors would be displayed.