Re: "green" linux user needs CRON clarification
In article <[🔎] Pine.GSO.4.03.9902161100010.24337-100000@raptor>,
sawitt <switt@electra.fu.hac.com> wrote:
>
>
>On Tue, 16 Feb 1999, William Schwartz wrote:
>
>> I guess my question is: what is the difference between the two? and which
>> one should I use? I need a program to run every 5 minutes to do some
>> polling. and I want it to happen 24/7.
>>
>
>doesn't wipe out any changes I have made to the system files. I've never
>modified the system crontab files and have been able to do whatever I
>wanted to cron. However, I'm less sure that this is "a bad thing" because
>some packages do exactly this when they are installed.
Packages should *not* modify /etc/crontab: they should put
/etc/crontab "fragments" in the /etc/cron.d directory. However, you
should be safe editing /etc/crontab.
/etc/crontab is a "conffile" of the cron package. The significance of
this is that dpkg will check that you haven't made your own changes to
it before overwriting it with a newer version- if you have, you'll be
given the option of installing the package maintainer's new version or
keeping your old one, and can Just Say No :}
Personally, I prefer to edit /etc/crontab to put in my own cron jobs,
rather than diving into /var or using the crontab command. Different
strokes for different folks.
Another alternative is to put your crontab entries in, say,
/etc/cron.d/local (and hope there is never a package called "local",
which would be evil).
SRH
--
Steve Haslam Validation Engineer, ARM Limited, Cambridge, England
almost called it today, turned to face the void along with the suffering
and the question- "Why am I?" [queensrÿche]
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