One-time cron output?

[Adeodato Simó <dato@net.com.org.es>]

Hello,

I wanted to gather some opinions on this matter. I’ve recently applied
to the mlocate package a patch I received to skip running the daily
update of the database if the system is running on batteries.

When that happens, the daily cron script emits a warning like “System on
battery power, not running updatedb.” I think it’s going to be bad
emitting that warning each time mlocate skips running updatedb, because
it could be a lot of times.

On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of being completely silent,
because the database could go un-updated for a long time without the
user ever knowing why.

I’d like to make the script check for the existence of a file like
/var/lib/mlocate/on_battery_warning_done.touch, and only emit the
warning if it does not exist (and then touch it). (And possibly prefix
the warning with the words “One-time warning:”.)

Does this sound appropriate, or does it sound like an overkill? If it
doesn’t sound appropriate, do you think always emitting the warning, or
never emitting it, is more appropriate?

Thanks,

-- 
- Are you sure we're good?
- Always.
        -- Rory and Lorelai