[NBLUG/talk] Help with apticron program

[Steve Bursch]

I have Ubuntu 12.10 installed on an HP dual processor machine.  I run 
the machine 24/7.   I want to use the apticron program to notify me by 
email when updates are available.  I installed apticron and changed its 
configuration file to use my email address.  In the same configuration 
file, I changed the subject line of the emails it sent.  Also, I changed 
the configuration file to notify me when no updates were available.  I 
did the latter to make sure apticron was working okay since most of the 
time, updates are not available.

My problem is this:  I'm not getting any emails whatsoever.

I've checked my spam, junk, and graymail folders, and none contain any 
emails from apticron.  On the Ubuntu machine, I checked the syslog files 
and observe that CRON is invoking the apticron script. I've also 
manually invoked apticron from a terminal session (using the sudo 
command) and have observed via the System Monitor that network activity 
occurs when I invoke the command.  Apticron appears to be processing 
okay...it's just not sending out the email message.

Can anyone give me some pointers on how I might diagnose this problem?

Thanks in advance...Steve