run-parts should have a -v so it outputs when a job is being run to syslog via logger when its going through a dir. ie: run-parts -v /etc/cron.daily/ would output messages to the logs saying when it is beginning and ending each individual script inside the cron dir. it would greatly help debugging problems occuring due to cron jobs. I will attach a patch to this bug that provides this functionality. this means crontabs will depend on util-linux (b/c it provides logger) - not a big deal I think.
Created attachment 42351 [details] enables -v (verbosity) in run-parts
Thanks for the patch. We'll evaluate and test it and try to get it in the next release.
wow, closing this.