Error messages in Console Log of Apple System Profiler

Question

Today, I manually executed some CRON scripts from the Terminal window as part of a regular maintenance cycle. Before doing so, I ran the Apple System Profiler (OS 10.2.8), clicked on the Logs tab, and checked the Console Log. It had three days of error messages and other info (more on this later), but my intent was just to check the last entries in the log before running the CRON scripts, so that I could detect any additional errors logged as a result of the CRON scripts.
Having checked the log, I quit the Profiler and all other applications. Then I opened the Terminal window and entered:
sudo periodic monthly
I was prompted for my adminstrator password, and it then executed the script. It took just seconds to execute. Following this, I also executed
sudo periodic weekly
sudo periodic daily
The weekly CRON took about 2 minutes to finish, and the daily only a few seconds. I ran Apple System Profiler again and checked the console log and found this additional error message (not present prior to running the scripts):
Feb 15 13:43:10 Drake-Bradleys-Computer sendmail[865]: NOQUEUE:
SYSERR(root): /etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 93: fileclass: cannot open '/
etc/mail/local-host-names': Group writable directory
(I have inserted hard returns to break the single-line error message into three lines to avoid requiring readers to use the horizontal scroll bar.)
Can anyone tell me what this error means, and what, if anything, I should do about it?
Following all of this, I next repaired my permissions with Disk Utility (and yes, after dragging iTunes 6.0.2 to the desktop). I then ran the profiler, checked the log, and encountered these two additional error messages:
file not in an order that can be processed (local relocation entries out
of place): ./Library/Frameworks/StuffIt.framework/Versions/A/StuffIt
file not in an order that can be processed (local relocation entries out
of place): ./Library/Frameworks/StuffIt.framework/Versions/A/StuffIt
(Again, hard returns are inserted.)
The errors are identical. They presumably were generated by my running disk permissions, as other applications were shut down. It appears the error refers to the Suffit application.
Any ideas what causes these errors?
Finally, a last question. (And thanks for being patient with such a long post.) The console log contains a large number of error messages for each day. This occurs even on days when I have had no apps hang, or any other system problems (power failures, etc.) that I was aware of. Many of the errors seem to involve windows manangement. The most common one is:
Feb 14 17:11:18 Drake-Bradleys-Computer /System/Library/
CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer:
kCGErrorIllegalArgument : CGSGetWindowGeometry: Invalid window
But other examples are:
Feb 14 17:42:21 Drake-Bradleys-Computer WindowServer[194]:
Cannot merge groups (yet) for wid 1877, otherwid 1881
Feb 15 10:34:37 Drake-Bradleys-Computer WindowServer[194]:
Reserved range exhausted. (0xbbf45000 to 0xbc271000 goes out of
bounds)
Feb 15 10:35:03 Drake-Bradleys-Computer WindowServer[194]:
CGXRemoveTrackingArea : Invalid tracking area
Is it fairly common for the console log to be filled with dozens of errors like this on a given day even though the iMac seems to be functioning normally?
Thanks for any advice,
Drake Bradley
P.S. I have a Casio digital camera and an HP printer hooked up to the iMac, and very recently, an Iomega HDD. (The latter was not connected for the tests reported above.)

Answer 1

534/2980
Hi Drake,
Yes, it is common, and I wouldn't worry about it.
These "errors" are not about anything wrong. My guess is that it's a developer jargon to indicate that something didn't happen, only because there is no possibility of it happening given your specific settings/system options.
See for example the statements "System woke from sleep" or "System going to sleep" in "error_log"...
We don't know to what extend these "errors" belong to so many unmodified files that used to do something in UNIX 15 years ago, but are now completely useless, harmless and so small they can't affect Mac OS X performance in any way?
Enjoy your Mac!
Axl