What is the ramifications to simply placing scripts in the /etc/cron.hourly directory as opposed to actually adding jobs via the crontab -e method? Is there any significance to using one method versus the other? Thanks! jlc
On Jan 1, 2008 6:08 PM, Joseph L. Casale <jcasale at activenetwerx.com> wrote:> What is the ramifications to simply placing scripts in the /etc/cron.hourly directory as opposed to actually adding jobs via the crontab -e method? > Is there any significance to using one method versus the other?Using /etc/cron.hourly is better for applications which use cron jobs. When you install the application, it just has to drop a file in a directory rather than parsing a particular user's crontab. It also provides a central location to look for jobs, rather than parsing a number of different user files to figure out your hourly tasks (for system user tasks, not actual people tasks). -- During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell
On Tue, Jan 01, 2008 at 04:08:17PM -0700, Joseph L. Casale wrote:> What is the ramifications to simply placing scripts in the /etc/cron.hourly directory as opposed to actually adding jobs via the crontab -e method? > Is there any significance to using one method versus the other?If you don't need to run something at a specific time then cron.hourly is easier and simpler. Just drop the script into the directory. If you need something at a specific time then look into /etc/cron.d/ which is similar to traditional crontab format, but again is simply a matter of dropping files into that directory. eg % cat /etc/cron.d/sysstat # run system activity accounting tool every 10 minutes */10 * * * * root /usr/lib/sa/sa1 1 1 # generate a daily summary of process accounting at 23:53 53 23 * * * root /usr/lib/sa/sa2 -A Traditional crontab entries do still work, if you really want to deal with that, but it's harder to automate install/uninstalls. -- rgds Stephen