Getting dead.letter Files Generated in /root When No Mail Transfer Agent Is Configured

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Many files called dead.letter are appearing in the /root folder.
  • The system does not have a mail program set up to send emails.

  • What causes the creation of dead.letter files specifically?

    Jun 06 04:05:22 test.example.com CROND[21207]: (root) CMDOUT (f++++++++++++++++: /root/dead.letter)
Jun 06 05:00:15 test.example.com CROND[22000]: (root) CMDOUT (/root/dead.letter 246598/13442550)

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8
  • cronie

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