diff --git a/cronwrap/cronwrap b/cronwrap/cronwrap
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1264122
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cronwrap/cronwrap
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+#! /usr/local/system/perl/bin/perl -w
+use strict;
+
+use Getopt::Std;
+use Mail::Mailer;
+
+# debug metrics are written to cronwrap.log (in cwd which should be set to ~ by cron) if it exists
+#
+# -t dir     : use this directory to capture output of script (default: cwd )
+# -m address : mail to this address (default $LOGNAME)
+# -v         : do send mail - even when exist status signals success
+
+my $logfile="cronwrap.log";
+if (-e $logfile)
+{
+	open STDOUT,">>$logfile";
+	open STDERR,">&STDOUT";
+}
+else
+{
+	open STDOUT,">/dev/null";
+	open STDERR,">/dev/null";
+}
+
+my %opt;
+getopts('m:t:l:v',\%opt);
+my $cmd=join " ",@ARGV;
+my $start_time=localtime;
+my $hostname=`/bin/hostname`;
+chomp($hostname);
+
+warn "+++ $$ $start_time $hostname $0 $cmd\n";
+
+die "no command" if $cmd eq "";
+#warn "environment:\n",map("\t$_ => $ENV{$_}\n",keys %ENV);
+
+my $tmpdir=$opt{'t'}||'.';
+my $tmpout="$tmpdir/cronwrap.tmp.$$";
+#warn "tempout : $tmpout\n";
+
+END
+{
+	$tmpout && -e $tmpout && unlink $tmpout;
+}
+
+-e $tmpout && unlink $tmpout;
+
+my $pid=fork;
+defined $pid or die "fork failed $!\n";
+unless ($pid)
+{
+	my $umask=umask 077;
+	open STDOUT,">$tmpout";
+	open STDERR,">&STDOUT";
+	umask $umask;
+	exec {'/bin/sh'} '-sh','-c',$cmd;
+	die "exec failed : $!\n";
+}
+wait;
+my $status=$?;
+
+if ($tmpout && -e $tmpout && $opt{'l'}) {
+    if (open OUT, ">>$opt{'l'}") {
+        open T,"<$tmpout";
+        while (<T>) {
+            print OUT;
+        }
+        close T;
+        close OUT;
+    } else {
+        warn "can't open output-logfile ('$opt{l}') to append output to: $!";
+    }
+}
+
+if ($status || $opt{v})
+{
+	my $subject = ($status ? 'FAIL: ':'')."$cmd";
+	my $to=$opt{'m'}||$ENV{'LOGNAME'}||"nobody";
+	my @to=split/,/,$to;
+	@to=map {/@/ ? $_ : "$_ <$_\@molgen.mpg.de>" } @to;
+
+	my $mailer=new Mail::Mailer 'smtp',Server=>'harry.molgen.mpg.de';
+	$mailer->open
+	(
+		{
+			From => "\"cronwrap\@$hostname\" <postmaster\@molgen.mpg.de>",
+			To => \@to,
+			Subject => $subject,
+		}
+	);
+
+        print $mailer "You cron command $cmd\n";
+	print $mailer "   started   $start_time on $hostname\n";
+	print $mailer "   completed ".scalar(localtime)."\n";
+
+	if ($status) {
+		print $mailer "It terminated with an exit value of ",
+		$status>>8," and a signal status of ",$status&255,"\n";
+	}
+	if (-s $tmpout) {
+		print $mailer "It produced the following output:\n\n";
+		print $mailer "-"x60,"\n";
+		open T,"<$tmpout";
+		while (<T>) {
+			$_ eq ".\n" and $_="..\n";
+			print $mailer $_;
+		}
+		print $mailer "-"x60,"\n\n";
+		close T;
+	} else {
+		print $mailer "It didn't produce any output.\n";
+	}
+	print $mailer "\n\nYours\n   cronwrap.pl\n";
+	$mailer->close;
+	warn "--- $$ ",scalar(localtime),' ',"$hostname completion status: $status - mail sent to $to\n";
+}
+else
+{
+	warn "--- $$ ",scalar(localtime),' ',"$hostname completion status: $status - no mail sent\n";
+}
diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 0d1ccad..2a32caf 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -231,6 +231,7 @@ install_exec crashkernel/startup-crashmemory              "$DESTDIR$usr_sbindir/
 install_data crashkernel/startup-crashmemory.service      "$DESTDIR$systemdunitdir/startup-crashmemory.service"
 install_exec mxsnoop/mxsnoop.sh                           "$DESTDIR$usr_sbindir/mxsnoop.sh"
 install_exec net_qdisc_nfs_low/net_qdisc_nfs_low          "$DESTDIR$usr_sbindir/net_qdisc_nfs_low"
+install_exec cronwrap/cronwrap                            "$DESTDIR$usrlocal_bindir/cronwrap"
 
 postinstall
 exit