[SOLVED] Slackware and cronjobs

kikinovak · 07-08-2013, 07:59 AM

Hi,

I wonder what's the orthodox way to handle cronjobs on a Slackware machine. Say I have to run a weekly backup script. I'd edit crontab using crontab -e like this, for example:

Code:

15 3 * * 0 root /root/backup.sh

So the script would run every Sunday at 3:15 AM.

Now in Slackware, there's a series of cron.daily, cron.weekly etc. directories, containing each a series of scripts, to be run at respective intervals.

I wonder if an orthodox way of running my script would be to move and rename it to, say, /etc/cron.weekly/backup... and then leave it there.

I'd be grateful for the relevant piece of information/documentation about the subject.

Cheers,

Niki

Mark Pettit · 07-08-2013, 08:08 AM

I think the /etc/cron.* directories are merely conveniences. They make configuration somewhat simpler, but at the cost of fine-granular control. Also, they are not available to non-root users.

jostber · 07-08-2013, 08:36 AM

Interesting article on dcron in Slackware here:

http://www.nickcoleman.org/blog/inde...112181115!unix

kikinovak · 07-08-2013, 08:36 AM

OK, thanks very much.

zhjim · 07-08-2013, 08:52 AM

cron.* is called by /etc/crontab which gets sourced by crond. The only downside I can see using them is that they are run at a fixed time and in sequencial order. So if your first job in cron.daily takes two hours all the other jobs need to wait. Good or bad. But I don't want my cronjobs to hog the system. I would use the cron.* directories for system specific jobs like backup (your use case) or update checking or removing stuff, logrotation etc. And user owned jobs (crontab -e) for special needs like cleaning after my auto compilation or similar.

Diantre · 07-08-2013, 02:35 PM

The default root crontab (/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root) uses /usr/bin/run-parts to execute scripts in the /etc/cron.* directories.

Code:

bash-4.2# crontab -l
# If you don't want the output of a cron job mailed to you, you have to direct
# any output to /dev/null.  We'll do this here since these jobs should run
# properly on a newly installed system.  If a script fails, run-parts will
# mail a notice to root.
#
# Run the hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly cron jobs.
# Jobs that need different timing may be entered into the crontab as before,
# but most really don't need greater granularity than this.  If the exact
# times of the hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly cron jobs do not suit your
# needs, feel free to adjust them.
#
# Run hourly cron jobs at 47 minutes after the hour:
47 * * * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.hourly 1> /dev/null
#
# Run daily cron jobs at 4:40 every day:
40 4 * * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.daily 1> /dev/null
#
# Run weekly cron jobs at 17:30 on the first day of the week:
30 17 * * 0 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.weekly 1> /dev/null
#
# Run monthly cron jobs at 4:20 on the first day of the month:
20 4 1 * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.monthly 1> /dev/null

Usually I change the times in the default crontab and put my backup scripts in /etc/cron.weekly. Works for me.