diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index dc88b998f4..1f847d13be 100644
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -8238,3 +8238,11 @@ David  20 Nov 2010
 
     client/
         scheduler_op.cpp
+
+David  20 Nov 2010
+    - start script: don't write error message if period task is already
+        running, and output is not a TTY (i.e., cron).
+        Otherwise admin gets a lot of spurious emails.
+
+    sched/
+        start
diff --git a/sched/start b/sched/start
index 624124d076..fb01cc1dd1 100755
--- a/sched/start
+++ b/sched/start
@@ -391,8 +391,9 @@ def run_task(task):
     # we don't need the full double-fork because this should finish quickly
     if fork() > 0: return
     if lock_file(get_task_lock_name(task)):
-        print >>sys.stderr, "    Task currently running! (%s)"%task.cmd
-        sys.exit(1)
+        if verbose:
+            print >>sys.stderr, "    Task currently running! (%s)"%task.cmd
+        sys.exit(0)
     redirect(get_task_output_name(task))
     exec_command_string(task.cmd)