From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jun 27 07:35:14 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id HAA00891 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 27 Jun 1996 07:35:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from watson.grauel.com (watson.grauel.com [199.233.104.36]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id HAA00880 for ; Thu, 27 Jun 1996 07:35:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sparcmill.grauel.com (sparcmill.grauel.com [199.233.104.34]) by watson.grauel.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA02724; Thu, 27 Jun 1996 09:43:16 -0500 (EST) Received: by sparcmill.grauel.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id JAA17453; Thu, 27 Jun 1996 09:34:08 -0500 Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 09:34:08 -0500 From: rjk@sparcmill.grauel.com (Richard J Kuhns) Message-Id: <199606271434.JAA17453@sparcmill.grauel.com> To: Bill/Carolyn Pechter Cc: andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu (Annelise Anderson), freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@shell.monmouth.com Subject: The crontab controversy In-Reply-To: <199606262358.TAA21815@shell.monmouth.com> References: <199606262358.TAA21815@shell.monmouth.com> Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk pechter@shell.monmouth.com writes: > > My fellow FreeBSD folks: > > > > It's time we took a stand. yes > Isn't it time we abandon the two methods of handling crontabs.? yes > I'm a fan of OS/x and Pyramid dual universe stuff (which I will add to > Freebsd -- think universe bsd and universe gnu/linux) and EVEN I think ONE > crontab method is enough for anyone. > > > Should we: > > 1. Declare the ATT method the winner. > 2. Declare the BSD method (the REAL original crontab) the winner. > 3. Make the installation program remove one or the other at install > (put /var/cront/tabs/root in with the same actions as /etc/crontab > and have the install remove one or the other) > 4. Ignore the problem and trap the users/admins? > In order of preference, 1 3 2 4. Method 1 (/var/cron/tabs/*) offers the greatest versatility and consistency; it's sole disadvantage, as far as I can see, is that it requires root to execute one additional commmand when changing the system crontab file: "crontab new_crontab". I'd even be willing to argue that this is a Good Thing. Furthermore, a crontab file is a crontab file is a crontab file. This makes it easier to write a script that (syntactically) verifies crontab files before installing them. -- Rich Kuhns rjk@grauel.com PO Box 6249 Tel: (317)477-6000 x319 100 Sawmill Road Lafayette, IN 47903