bcron-update(8) 					      System Manager's Manual						   bcron-update(8)

NAME

       bcron-update - Update system crontabs.

SYNOPSIS

       bcron-update path [ path ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       bcron-update  polls  the  named	files or directories periodically to see if there are any new, changed, or removed files.  When it detects
       changes, it mirrors those changes into the crontab spool directory.  bcron-update runs as root in order to be able  to  read  system  files
       that would potentially be unreadable otherwise.

       On Debian, if path is a directory, bcron-update skips files in this directory with names that do not solely consist of lower- and uppercase
       letters ('a'-'z', 'A'-'Z'), digits ('0'-'9'), underscores ('_'), and hyphens ('-').

EXAMPLES

       To mirror modern vixie-cron's behavior, use:
       bcron-update /etc/crontab /etc/cron.d

ENVIRONMENT

       BCRON_SPOOL
	    The spool directory for bcron.  Defaults to /var/spool/cron.

       BCRON_USER
	    After writing files and before moving them into their final location, bcron-update changes the ownership of the file to this  user	so
	    that bcron-sched can read them.

SEE ALSO

       bcron-sched(8)

DIAGNOSTICS

       bcron-update outputs three different kinds of messages about actions it is taking.

       Rescanning /etc/cron.d
	    The named directory has been modified, and will be scanned to determine what files have been added or deleted.

       -/etc/cron.d/oldfile
	    The named file no longer exists and will be removed from the spool.

       +/etc/cron.d/newfile
	    The named file was either created or modified since the last scan, and will be copied into the spool.

AUTHOR

       Bruce Guenter <bruceg@em.ca>

																   bcron-update(8)