PROPOSAL: Change Chapter 17 of LSB Spec (cron)

[Johannes Poehlmann <johannes@caldera.de>]

This Proposal is a repost of "Comments on Chapter 17 (cron) 
of the LSB Spec", sent out 2000 June 12 to the lsb-spec list 

=============================================

	PROPOSAL to change Chapter 17 of the LSB Spec:

  common script repository, init-like symlinks, directory naming



1 It is desirable to control the order of execution of the scripts
  put in one of the "periodic scripts directories" ( /etc/cron.daily etc.).

  This can be done by adapting the naming scheme used inside   
  of /etc/init.d, using two digit prefixes, which control the order 
  of execution.

2 It should be possible for the local sysadmin to move the scripts from 
  one "periodic scripts dir." to one other, to control frequency of execution.

3. Both requirements 1. and 2. make it difficult for package managers to
   cleanly remove or update because the script names and path can change.

4. This is why Caldera uses a common cron script repository 
   (/etc/cron.d/lib in OpenLinux 2.4) and uses soft links to these
   repository from the periodic scripts directories. (modeled
   after /etc/init.d/) The soft links must be named XXname, where
   XX is 2 digits and name is the name of the script pointed to.

   Example: /etc/cron.d/Daily/40cleandir ->../lib/cleandir

   The local system administrator now can rename and move these
   soft links inside the periodic scripts directories, but the
   package manager can get the information which soft links point
   to which script. As the scripts are part of a package, the
   package manager could completely control these soft links.
 
5. /etc Name space pollution

   The actual proposal enforces 5 cron related directories in /etc.
   (Or even 6 if our cron script repository idea is used). This can
   get even worse, if somebody wishes more periodic scripts directories,
   say /etc/cron.biweekly.

   This is why we propose to keep the historical place /etc/cron.d/
   and put the following directories inside:

   /etc/cron.d/
              ¦
              +-Monthly  periodic scripts directories (Capitalized Names)
              +-Weekly
              +-Daily
              +-Hourly
              +-[A-Z]*   more periodic scripts directories allowed
              | 
              +-scripts  cron scripts repository
              +-tabs     cron tab snippets dropped by packages 
                         ( is /etc/cron.d in the lsb-spec )



-- 
     ______   ___        
    /  ___/__/  /                 Caldera (Deutschland) GmbH          
   /  /_/ _  / /__        Naegelsbachstr. 49c, 91052 Erlangen, Germany 
  /_____/_/ /____/            software developer / lsb project 
 ==== /____/ =====   Dipl. Inf. Johannes Poehlmann, mail: jhp@caldera.de
Caldera OpenLinux    phone: ++49 9131 7192 336, fax: ++49 9131 7192 399