Dear Maintainer,

I cannot catch when it start but it looks like if email are no more collected.

What I try as root

1) using systemd services
 ~# systemctl start email-reminder-collect.service
 ~# systemctl status email-reminder-collect.service
○ email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service; static)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2026-07-21 09:10:14 CEST; 2s ago
 Invocation: 4a36a3f0dce847f8aac13229bc357be5
    Process: 842083 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 842089 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: 842083 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Mem peak: 7.8M
        CPU: 77ms

juil. 21 09:10:14 nomade systemd[1]: Starting email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders...
juil. 21 09:10:14 nomade systemd[1]: email-reminder-collect.service: Deactivated successfully.
juil. 21 09:10:14 nomade systemd[1]: Finished email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders.

~# ll /var/spool/email-reminder/
total 0

It's probably a permissions issue, but I don't think it's your
~/.email-reminders because I can't reproduce it locally by just changing
that:

  francois@reykjavik:~$ ls -lh .email-reminders
  .rw-rw-r--   18k francois francois  2 jun 21:41  .email-reminders
  francois@reykjavik:~$ chmod 644 .email-reminders
  francois@reykjavik:~$ sudo systemctl start email-reminder-collect.service
  francois@reykjavik:~$ sudo ls /var/spool/email-reminder/
  1000

Can you try adding --verbose to the systemd unit file?

  sudo systemctl edit email-reminder-collect.service

with only these lines at the top:

  ### Editing /etc/systemd/system/email-reminder-collect.service.d/override.conf
  ### Anything between here and the comment below will become the contents of the drop-in file

  [Service]
  ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders --verbose

  ### Edits below this comment will be discarded

Then please share the output of these commands:

  francois@reykjavik:~$ sudo systemctl start email-reminder-collect.service
  francois@reykjavik:~$ sudo 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 Tue 2026-07-21 14:06:38 PDT; 1s ago
   Invocation: 0a956f00e26e4712affc7d0092ac29e0
      Process: 113027 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Process: 113033 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders --verbose (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Process: 113040 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/find /var/spool/email-reminder/ -name .* -prune -o -type f -exec /usr/bin/chown email-reminder {} + (code=exited,>
     Main PID: 113033 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Mem peak: 10.4M
          CPU: 116ms

  jui 21 14:06:38 reykjavik systemd[1]: Starting email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders...
  jui 21 14:06:38 reykjavik collect-reminders[113033]: Found francois (1000:/bin/bash) with homedir '/home/francois'
  jui 21 14:06:38 reykjavik collect-reminders[113033]: Found these local home directories: [{/home/francois 1000}]
  jui 21 14:06:38 reykjavik collect-reminders[113033]: Copied '/home/francois/.email-reminders' to '/var/spool/email-reminder/1000'
  jui 21 14:06:38 reykjavik systemd[1]: email-reminder-collect.service: Deactivated successfully.
  jui 21 14:06:38 reykjavik systemd[1]: Finished email-reminder-collect.service - Collect email reminders.

Also helpful to share would be these:

  francois@reykjavik:~$ sudo ls -ld /var/spool/email-reminder/
  drwxrwx--- 1 email-reminder root 8 21 jui 14:06 /var/spool/email-reminder/

  francois@reykjavik:~$ grep email-reminder /etc/passwd
  email-reminder:x:986:986:Email-reminder mailer:/var/spool/email-reminder:/usr/sbin/nologin

to make sure that things are setup properly on your machine. If they're not,
then I may need to fix it up in the Debian package's postinst script.

Merci !

François

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).

[...]

That's exactly the problem!

Here's the fix:

  $ sudo systemctl edit email-reminder-collect.service

  [Service]
  ExecStart=/usr/sbin/collect-reminders --verbose
  CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_CHOWN CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE

CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE is what lets root ignore file/directory permissions.

I will push an update out this week.

Merci beaucoup pour l'aide de débogage !

François

Le Wed, 22 Jul 2026 10:33:01 -0700,
Francois Marier <francois@debian.org> a écrit :

I put the fix in place and it works perfectly.
Thanks a lot for your support !

C'est toujours un plaisir lorsque je peux aider.

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
email-reminder, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1142520@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Francois Marier <francois@debian.org> (supplier of updated email-reminder package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:30:16 -0700
Source: email-reminder
Architecture: source
Version: 1.2.0-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Francois Marier <francois@debian.org>
Changed-By: Francois Marier <francois@debian.org>
Closes: 1142520
Changes:
 email-reminder (1.2.0-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * New upstream release
     - fix for restricted home directories (closes: #1142520)
   * Stop removing email-reminder user on purge
   * Bump Standards-Version up to 4.7.4
   * Bump debhelper-compat to 14
   * Remove unnecessary Priority field in debian/control
   * Add dh-sequence-single-binary build depends
   * Fix quoting issues in debian/postinst
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