[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: cron jobs more often than daily



FWIW, just so you don't think you're by yourself, I think your
proposal is superior.  What we're talking about here is a simple cron
"database", and that's something the filesyastem's quite good at -- no
scripts needed.

Those arguing in favor of making /etc/crontab automatically generated
are the same people who think that people won't understand
/etc/cron.d, and that /etc/cron.d is too unix-incompatible.

1) Making /etc/crontab auto-generated is at least as incompatible as
/etc/cron.d, and it puts more of a burden on the user.  Debian users
already know about /etc/crontab, and expect to be able to modify it.
If we go with /etc/cron.d, as far as the user's concerned, nothing
changes -- principle of least surprise.

2) If you make /etc/crontab automatically generated, people new to
Debian *will* still modify it, and then we'll have to field questions
on debian-user.

3) With /etc/cron.d we can make the files in there conffiles (like
/etc/init.d), and then when a user modifies them, they'll get
immediate results, without having to remember to call some script (and
many won't remember, they'll ask on debian-user why their changes
didn't take effect).

-- 
Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu>
PGP fingerprint = E8 0E 0D 04 F5 21 A0 94  53 2B 97 F5 D6 4E 39 30


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org . 
Trouble?  e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .


Reply to: