CRON Jobs
 

Hello,

I am running a SMB server that I use for centralized file storage as well as a software storage center so that my clients can easily access the software storage center and download software that they see fit.

My question is this, I would like to set a cron job to automatically download daily updates to an anti-virus software and possibly push those updates down to the clients. I know it is possible to do the first thing, but the second, I'm not sure about.

Someone have any ideas? Thank you.

Hi Scott,

and yes, the Cron job download is a piece of cake :)

The other thing (pushing the files) is quite straightforward,
too, if the clients happen to be linux machines. You could
set-up a password-less ssh connection for a particular
user (like antivir) and then simply
scp new_signatures antivir@<target_host>:/<apth>/<to>/<sig>

Cheers,
Tink

Hi Tink,

Thanks for the help. Now since I know it's possible, let me go into specifics. The clients are Windows clients (hence my use of smb).

I use Norton Anti-Virus on the Windows machines and I would like to automatically retrieve the daily Intelligent updater definitions. I get those from this site:


http://securityresponse.symantec.com...es/US-N95.html

I download those into a directory called:

/software/Norton Definitions

Now, as you may or may not know, those updates are daily. Can you tell me what I need to do to set up my linux server to retrieve those updates?

The second batch of instructions you gave me are a little harder for me to understand. I've only been working with Linux for less than a year and I'm still learning quite a bit, however, my time is limited now due to my work schedule. Thanks.

Hummmm :)

I'd go with using a bash-script ...
first, download the pages html code from the site
using wget, then filter the page for .exe and .zip
and use wget again to retrieve them.

As for the distribution bits ... I'm not sure about
ssh clients for windows, and interaction with
linux' ssh passwordless authentication, and
as for the time being am not going to read up
on it. :} But you could write a little windows.cmd
file, store that on the samba server, and use
windows' scheduled task feature to run it.

Cheers,
Tink

Very interesting,

I knew that there would be a way to do this. . . . However, not to sound stupid, but I've never used WGET before. Can you help me with this?

Secondly, you mention filtering out for the .exe and .zip files. Umm, I need some help with this. As I said, I've not been using Linux for more than about 8 months so your patience would be appreciated. Thanks.

I haven't tested it since I don't need the
files, but it should work :} Have a play with it.


This will dowload all EXE's and ZIP's from that
page .... hope this is what you needed?


Cheers,
Tink

Yep, that is what I wanted. Thanks a lot!! With that script, at what times will it run or how would I set it to run at a specific time? Tell me, did you write that script out yourself? I've only had one Unix class and our shell scripting segment didn't get nearly that complex. I'm kind of a total novice when it comes to writing shell scripts.

Secondly, and I don't know if you can help with this, but you mentioned setting a scheduled task on the windows machine to run it, however, with that I would have to click on the dialog boxes that appear when the Intelligent Updater is run.

Thirdly, what directory would that script have to be located and what should I name the file in order to run?

And Fourth, I wish the files to be downloaded to a specific directory, where would I specify the directory to save the files to?

You'll have to set-up a cron job for that.
This script is just what's meant to run at a
given time that you have to choose yet.

The script is simple, so is the call to awk :}

Ummm ... maybe we should move that part
to the General forum mate, this has NOTHING
to do with Linux anymore ;)

Whatever you wan to call it. And put it where ever
you feel like. For cron to be able to run it you'll have
to specific the full path to it, anyway.
You'll have to
chmod u+x <filename>
to be able to run it.
But if you're doing nifty things like this you
really should read up on what you're doing ;)

If you had a specific directory in mind you'd
probably want to put a
cd /<your>/<specific>/<directory>
as the second line of that script.

Cheers,
Tink

Hi Tink,

You said the second line of this script? So you mean after bin/bash or after wget?


#!/bin/bash
wget http://securityresponse.symantec.co...ges/US-N95.html
for getIt in `awk -F'"' '/=.+\.(zip|exe)\>/ {print $2}' US-N95.html`
do
wget http://securityresponse.symantec.com/$getIt
done


Also, let's say I want this script to run at 1700 (5PM) every day. Where would I put that in?

And you made a comment about reading up on what I''m doing, where would you suggest doing that? I've only been running LInux for less than a year so that's why my questions probably seem simple to you.

Hi Scott!

After the sha-bang line :)
add a
cd /<your>/<target>/<directory>

crontab -e
add a line
00 17 * * * /path/to.your/script 2>&1 > /var/log/antivir

Heh ... the questions sound simple, the answers
take some time ;) ...
http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/ is a pretty good
introduction, and there's always the man pages...
man man for help on how to use them...
If you have questions about cron, for instance,
try a
man -k cron
(alternatively, apropos cron)

Cheers,
Tink

I'm sorry, I know you're kidding about the sha-bang line, but I guess I'm a litle slow on the uptake, what did you mean by that?

# = hash = sha
! = bang

No worries :) ... this is being used in the
advanced bash howto (I think?) ...
So, #!/bin/bash = the sha-bang line

Cheers,
Tink

Hi Tink,

One more question for you if you would be so kind. I was wondering, since my scripting experience is very limited, if you could break down that script and tell me exactly what each command does? I'm just really curious.

Secondly, my shell scripting experience, as you can tell, is very limited and I was wondering how I could get better at doing it? Are there books like dummies books that start from the beginning, give good practice excercises, and advance? I was just curious.

Anyway, I think later today I will get started on this little project. Thanks again!

Sure, even though the script is far from complex.
Curious is a VERY good start, really :}

Look at this - either download or read online.
http://www.tldp.org/guides.html#abs

Also there are "Shell-programming for dummies" books
out there.

A highly recommendable book as a desktop-reference
is O'Reiley's "Linux in a nutshell".


Cheers,
Tink

Tink,

I really appreciate all of your help. I thought I was going to be able to get started on this today, but like so many of my days lately, I haven't been able to. See, I work nights and my days are spent mostly in bed and now I'm just getting up and I don't think now is the time to really get started on this project. I guess I'll wait until the weekend. Oh well. . . Hey, if you're ever in the area, look me up. Where are you from anyway? I'd have to guess by your use of language that you're from Austrailia?