Package: cron Version: 3.0pl1-100 Severity: wishlist Tags: patch It's great that cron and anacron work well together, and that /etc/crontab has code to defer to anacron if anacron is installed. However, more can be done to make these programs work well together, and it isn't very hard.
cron generally makes anacron unnecessary on computers that run for long periods of time without shutting down or restarting. anacron generally makes cron unnecessary on computers that are never on for more than 24 hours. But what about computers that are usually turned off every day, but sometimes run for several days, or weeks straight? As it is, cron defers to anacron, which only runs the daily and weekly scripts at startup, if necessary. This means, that if anacron is installed, and the user runs his computer for several days, then the daily jobs don't run. If he runs his computer for several weeks, then neither the daily nor weekly jobs run, and the monthly jobs might get behind too. With my patch, instead of cron just exiting, it calls anacron to do the work cron would have done. If the daily work has already been done today, or if the weekly work has already been done in the past 7 days, anacron just exits. However, if the computer has been on for more than a day, or more than a week, anacron will do it's jobs, just as if the computer just booted. The great thing about this patch is that there are no negative effects. You can run anacron 100 times an hour, and it will not execute its jobs more often than it is supposed to. This patch also removes the blank lines at the end. It isn't necessary, but excessive blank lines are kind of annoying. I don't know why they are there. I can't take full credit for this patch. I think I read about it somewhere online. Patch: --- /etc/crontab.old 2007-05-07 02:23:00.000000000 -0700 +++ /etc/crontab 2007-05-07 02:21:47.000000000 -0700 @@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ # m h dom mon dow user command 17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly 25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily ) +25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron && anacron 47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly ) +47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron && anacron 52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly ) +52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron && anacron # - - -Brandon -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
