UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Since a day ago your first post:
it launched on the first sunday of May... so for methyl and I we seem to stick to our interpretation and see no error and why am I so sure?
Well when I wanted to execute a job of the first sunday of the month,my cron would see, lets say (true examples...)

Code:

00 04 * * 0   /sm/bin/archive_mensuelle >>/sm/log/archive_mens.err 2>&1

in archive_mensuelle file, guess what you find:

Code:

# test sur le week number of the year
if [ $(date '+%d') -lt 8 ]
then
  /usr/adsm/dsmc archive -archmc="1year" -desc="exportmensPOP$(date)" '/export/*.dmp'
fi

Hi Cameron, no offence. vbe and I are in agreement.
Your original cron will next fire on Sunday 10 May 2009.

I quote from a HP-UX "man crontab".


Hope this helps.

No offence taken Methyl.

But if the below is to become cumulative:
45 2 25 05 0 .........

Why is it that I'd not had the script run prior to now ?? The script had been sitting undisturbed since May 2008.

Because Im quite sure you scheduled it sometime the last week of may 08 and in may 08 the last week left you with one sunday and that sunday was the 25th.
Here are some more examples from :
Newbie: Intro to cron
in notes:
And here is a thread on ITRC forum HP of almost the same issue:
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/...55048+28353475

All the best

Thanks vbe, you explained it better than me.

I had assumed that the cron fired prematurely for a scheduled job later in May 2009 when it was actually left over from May 2008.

Thanks Vbe.

So it's a quirk of cron ??

So If you specify the day & month in a cron entry, like 45 2 25 05 0 ... it will execute and re-execute again (not by your own design) on the first Sunday of the 5th month the following year.

Is that's a suitable summary of it ?

Cheers,
Cameron

For me it would be:
all the sundays of 5th month AND the 25th day of that month

(let us know if it is true since I havent tried that variant yet... so for was "every first sunday of each month" and so had * instead of a value for month...)

I remembered struggles (long ago...) on trying to get "OR" ( execute the second thursday but at the latest on the 13th - some months having 2nd thursday on 14, if run on the 13th it should not on the 14th..., or on wednesdays when it falls the 10th...)