[arch-general] Stuff in /etc/cron.d/ won't work?

[Allan McRae]

Sven-Hendrik Haase wrote:
> On 07.09.2009 04:30, Jozsef wrote:
>   
>> On Mon, 07 Sep 2009, Sven-Hendrik Haase wrote:
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> On 26.08.2009 05:37, Sven-Hendrik Haase wrote:
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> On 26.08.2009 05:10, Aaron Griffin wrote:
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>>>> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 7:46 PM, Sven-Hendrik Haase<sh at lutzhaase.com> wrote:
>>>>>   
>>>>>     
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>>>> On 25.08.2009 22:21, Nicolas Bigaouette wrote:
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> Would your script needs a shebang?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2009/8/25 Sven-Hendrik Haase <sh at lutzhaase.com>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>> On 25.08.2009 12:51, solsTiCe d'Hiver wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>>>>>> the crond log tells me that cron actually runs this command every
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>>>                   
>>>>>>>>>>                     
>>>>>>>>> minute without a problem
>>>>>>>>> i think you mis-read your log. and it should tell you that cron is
>>>>>>>>> looking for changes in /etc/cron.d every minute.
>>>>>>>>> may be, if you change you first * * * in your lol then may be it will
>>>>>>>>> work.
>>>>>>>>> assuming you're using the good cron. because fcron does not
>>>>>>>>> support /etc/cron.d but there is other ways to achieve the same thing.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> check crond man page or its documentation
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>>>>>                   
>>>>>>>> I'm using dcron and also I didn't misread. Also, dcron doesn't look for
>>>>>>>> changes in said directory without restarting from what I have found out.
>>>>>>>> It actually tells me what it is going to execute and that is my
>>>>>>>> /etc/cron.d/lol file. It would report and error otherwise. The thing
>>>>>>>> that strikes me is that the command doesn't actually do anything. echo
>>>>>>>> is a shell built-in of sh, bash, any shell really so env vars shouldn't
>>>>>>>> be an issue.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>>               
>>>>>>>>                 
>>>>>>>       
>>>>>>>         
>>>>>>>             
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> No, stuff in /etc/cron.d/ looks just like stuff in your crontab and gets
>>>>>> executed by the shell mentioned in $SHELL. Still, it wouldn't matter
>>>>>> because I'm using a built-in here. I'm really baffled by this.
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>           
>>>>>>             
>>>>> For the record, I've always had issues with this myself. I remedied it
>>>>> by simply putting things in root's crontab, but that's not a proper
>>>>> solution. If you can figure out how to get /etc/cron.d/ working as it
>>>>> should, I will love you forever
>>>>>
>>>>>   
>>>>>     
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>> >From web searches, it appears that dcron's support for /etc/cron.d is
>>>> somewhat wacky and not guaranteed to work. I think having a look at
>>>> bcron might be worth it. Find it here: http://untroubled.org/bcron/ and
>>>> find the AUR package here: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=6841.
>>>> A somewhat old assessment of available cron daemons by bcron's author
>>>> can be found here: http://untroubled.org/bcron/old/bcron_1.html.
>>>> Out of interest, I just looked up what other distros use for their cron
>>>> system and surprise! Ubuntu and Debian both use bcron and /etc/cron.d
>>>> works alright.
>>>> I shall hereby request changing Arch's default cron daemon to bcron in
>>>> order to fix the /etc/cron.d issues, to make Arch seem more modern and
>>>> to make Aaron love me forever (whatever it is that will subsequently
>>>> happen from that).
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> I'd like to bring this up again. Changing the cron daemon to a more
>>> modern one seems like a good idea to me.
>>>     
>>>       
>> What is the more modern one?
>>
>>   
>>     
> bcron is more modern crond as I mentioned before in the previous mail.
> Find it at: http://untroubled.org/bcron/
>   

File a feature request on the bug tracker or this will be lost again.

Allan