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Diffstat (limited to 'CONVERSION')
| -rw-r--r-- | CONVERSION | 85 |
1 files changed, 85 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/CONVERSION b/CONVERSION new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b86427d --- /dev/null +++ b/CONVERSION @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +$Id: CONVERSION,v 2.2 1993/12/28 08:34:43 vixie Exp $ + +Conversion of BSD 4.[23] crontab files: + +Edit your current crontab (/usr/lib/crontab) into little pieces, with each +users' commands in a different file. This is different on 4.2 and 4.3, +but I'll get to that below. The biggest feature of this cron is that you +can move 'news' and 'uucp' cron commands into files owned and maintainable +by those two users. You also get to rip all the fancy 'su' footwork out +of the cron commands. On 4.3, there's no need for the 'su' stuff since the +user name appears on each command -- but I'd still rather have separate +crontabs with seperate environments and so on. + +Leave the original /usr/lib/crontab! This cron doesn't use it, so you may +as well keep it around for a while in case something goes wakko with this +fancy version. + +Most commands in most crontabs are run by root, have to run by root, and +should continue to be run by root. They still have to be in their own file; +I recommend /etc/crontab.src or /usr/adm/crontab.src. + +'uucp's commands need their own file; how about /usr/lib/uucp/crontab.src? +'news' also, perhaps in /usr/lib/news/crontab.src... + +I say `how about' and `perhaps' because it really doesn't matter to anyone +(except you) where you put the crontab source files. The `crontab' command +COPIES them into a protected directory (CRONDIR/SPOOL_DIR in cron.h), named +after the user whose crontab it is. If you want to examine, replace, or +delete a crontab, the `crontab' command does all of those things. The +various `crontab.src' (my suggested name for them) files are just source +files---they have to be copied to SPOOLDIR using `crontab' before they'll be +executed. + +On 4.2, your crontab might have a few lines like this: + + 5 * * * * su uucp < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr + 10 4 * * * su uucp < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.day + 15 5 * * 0 su uucp < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.wk + +...or like this: + + 5 * * * * echo /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr | su uucp + 10 4 * * * echo /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.day | su uucp + 15 5 * * 0 echo /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.wk | su uucp + +On 4.3, they'd look a little bit better, but not much: + + 5 * * * * uucp /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr + 10 4 * * * uucp /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.day + 15 5 * * 0 uucp /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.wk + +For this cron, you'd create /usr/lib/uucp/crontab.src (or wherever you want +to keep uucp's commands) which would look like this: + + # /usr/lib/uucp/crontab.src - uucp's crontab + # + PATH=/usr/lib/uucp:/bin:/usr/bin + SHELL=/bin/sh + HOME=/usr/lib/uucp + # + 5 * * * * uudemon.hr + 10 4 * * * uudemon.day + 15 5 * * 0 uudemon.wk + +The application to the `news' cron commands (if any) is left for you to +figure out. Likewise if there are any other cruddy-looking 'su' commands in +your crontab commands, you don't need them anymore: just find a good place +to put the `crontab.src' (or whatever you want to call it) file for that +user, put the cron commands into it, and install it using the `crontab' +command (probably with "-u USERNAME", but see the man page). + +If you run a 4.2-derived cron, you could of course just install your current +crontab in toto as root's crontab. It would work exactly the way your +current one does, barring the extra steps in installing or changing it. +There would still be advantages to this cron, mostly that you get mail if +there is any output from your cron commands. + +One note about getting mail from cron: you will probably find, after you +install this version of cron, that your cron commands are generating a lot +of irritating output. The work-around for this is to redirect all EXPECTED +output to a per-execution log file, which you can examine if you want to +see the output from the "last time" a command was executed; if you get any +UNEXPECTED output, it will be mailed to you. This takes a while to get +right, but it's amazingly convenient. Trust me. + |