Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 03:42:20 -0400 From: epilogue <epilogue@allstream.net> To: krinklyfig@spymac.com Cc: FreeBSD-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: crontab question involving cvsup Message-ID: <20040826034220.65118714@localhost> In-Reply-To: <200408260007.26659.krinklyfig@spymac.com> References: <200408260007.26659.krinklyfig@spymac.com>
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On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin <krinklyfig@spymac.com> wrote: > OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has > been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. > > I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. > I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately > this is what I have in my crontab file: > > /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile > && /usr/local/bin/portindex && /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u > > It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the > cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter > portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is > because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I > run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running > portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show > anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this > type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not > working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) what you might want to do, is simply write a shell script and feed that into your crontab. in case you're not sure how to make a script, it is very simple and google will return many tutorials. in a nutshell, you put the commands you want into a file, make that file executable (chmod), and away you go. the first line of a shell script has an obligatory format and invokes the shell that will be used. #!/bin/sh << the leading # is required /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /foo/path/to/your/ports-supfile; # comments are allowed portindex; exit note: you might also prefer to end commands with && rather than ; i'm new to scripting myself so please forgive my feeble explanation. about the commands which you are planning to include, why the 'portsdb -u'? is that not doing essentially the same work as 'portindex' ? (http://www.freshports.org/sysutils/portindex/) anyhow. hope this helps. cheers, epi
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