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Re: crontab problems ...



Hello Bruno,

On Tuesday, October 02, 2001 at 6:03:27 PM, 
you wrote (at least in part):


> I noticed a strange things in my /etc/crontab which seems to be installed by
> the cron and maybe modified by the anacron package.

> Here is my crontab :

> ----------------------------------------crontab----------
> # /etc/crontab: system-wide crontab
> # Unlike any other crontab you don't have to run the `crontab'
> # command to install the new version when you edit this file.
> # This file also has a username field, that none of the other crontabs do.

> SHELL=/bin/sh
> PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

> # m h dom mon dow user  command
> 25 2     * * *  root    test -e /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily
> 47 2     * * 7  root    test -e /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly
> 52 2     1 * *  root    test -e /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly
> #
> ----------------------------------------crontab----------

> What I think is a problem is the `||' if the file /usr/sbin/crontab exist the
                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> run-parts part will not be executed, and if it does not exist the run-parts
> can not be executed.

> I dont understand why the `||' are not replaced by `&&'.

> Do I miss something, or is it a bug ?

This lines look for _ANACRON_ and if it is installed in the correct location
'anacron' executes the scripts by itself. If anacron is not installed (or not
executable) run-parts from package 'debianutils' is executed instead.
>From 'man run-parts'

SYNOPSIS
       run-parts  [--test] [--verbose] [--report] [--umask=umask]
       [--help] [--version] directory

DESCRIPTION
       run-parts runs a number of scripts or programs found in  a
       single  directory  directory.

So run-parts would take care about executing the cron-ed jobs.
So the idea behind this is not to make run-parts execute the cron-jobs but use
it as 'fall back' solution if anacron ain't available and therefore the '||'
is correct.
-- 
Best regards
 Peter                    



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