How to run a script when your computer is idle Post: 66995

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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers How to run a script when your computer is idle Post 66995 by chek on Saturday 19th of March 2005 10:30:44 PM

03-19-2005

Registered User

Cron

Go to a shell type in man cron

For everyone else's benefit here is the description:

cron starts a process that executes commands at specified
dates and times.

You can specify regularly scheduled commands to cron accord-
ing to instructions found in crontab files in the directory
/var/spool/cron/crontabs. Users can submit their own crontab
file using the crontab(1) command. Commands which are to be
executed only once can be submitted using the at(1) command.

cron only examines crontab or at command files during its
own process initialization phase and when the crontab or at
command is run. This reduces the overhead of checking for
new or changed files at regularly scheduled intervals.

As cron never exits, it should be executed only once. This
is done routinely by way of the svc:/system/cron:default
service. The file /etc/cron.d/FIFO file is used as a lock
file to prevent the execution of more than one instance of
cron.

cron captures the output of the job's stdout and stderr
streams, and, if it is not empty, mails the output to the
user. If the job does not produce output, no mail is sent to
the user. An exception is if the job is an at(1) job and the
-m option was specified when the job was submitted.

cron and at jobs are not executed if your account is locked.
Jobs and processses execute. The shadow(4) file defines
which accounts are not locked and will have their jobs and
processes executed.

Setting cron Jobs Across Timezones
The timezone of the cron daemon sets the system-wide
timezone for cron entries. This, in turn, is by set by
default system-wide using /etc/default/init.

If some form of daylight savings or summer/winter time is in
effect, then jobs scheduled during the switchover period
could be executed once, twice, or not at all.

Setting cron Defaults
To keep a log of all actions taken by cron, you must specify
CRONLOG=YES in the /etc/default/cron file. If you specify
CRONLOG=NO, no logging is done. Keeping the log is a user
configurable option since cron usually creates huge log

SunOS 5.10 Last change: 5 Aug 2004 1

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LEARN ABOUT OSF1

cron

cron(8) 						      System Manager's Manual							   cron(8)

NAME

       cron - The system clock daemon

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/cron

DESCRIPTION

       The cron daemon runs shell commands at specified dates and times.  Commands that are to run according to a regular or periodic schedule are
       found within the crontab files.	Commands that are to run once only are found within the at files.  You submit crontab and at file  entries
       by  using  the  crontab	and  at  commands.  Because the cron process exits only when killed or when the system stops, only one cron daemon
       should exist on the system at any given time.  Normally, you start the cron daemon from within a run command file.

       During process initialization and when cron detects a change, it examines the crontab and at files.  This strategy reduces the overhead	of
       checking  for  new  or  changed files at regularly scheduled intervals.	The cron command creates a log of its activities.  The cron daemon
       must be started from the system startup scripts because it must begin execution without a login user ID set.  The cron daemon  starts  each
       job  with the following process attributes stored with the job by the invoking process: Login user ID Effective and real user IDs Effective
       and real group IDs Supplementary groups

       It also establishes the following attributes from the authentication profile of the account associated with the login user ID of the invok-
       ing process: Audit control and disposition masks Kernel authorizations

DIAGNOSTICS

       The at and batch programs will refuse to accept jobs submitted from processes whose login user ID is different from the real user ID.

FILES

       Specifies the command path.  Main cron directory Directory containing the crontab files.  List of allowed users.  List of denied users His-
       tory information for cron Queue description file for at, batch, and cron

RELATED INFORMATION

       Commands:  at(1), crontab(1), rc0(8), rc2(8), rc3(8)

       Files: queuedefs(4) delim off

																	   cron(8)