From owner-freebsd-newbies Tue Jun 16 03:22:44 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id DAA11223 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:22:44 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from colossus.dyn.ml.org (dburr@199-170-160-168.la.inreach.net [199.107.160.168]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id DAA11212 for ; Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:22:36 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dburr@colossus.dyn.ml.org) Received: (from dburr@localhost) by colossus.dyn.ml.org (8.8.8/8.8.7) id DAA01638; Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:20:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dburr) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.2 [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <199806160711.CAA19407@zoom.bga.com> Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 03:20:58 -0700 (PDT) Organization: Computer Help From: Donald Burr To: "Stevan S." Subject: RE: HD running wild Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org My secret spy satellite informs me that on 16-Jun-98, Stevan S. wrote: > hard-drive > became active after it had been idling for an hour. It kind of > remembered UNIX systems (and FreeBSD systems, by extension) come with a utility called "cron." The purpose of this utility is to run specific jobs at specific dates and/or times of the day. For example, it can be used to perform automated backups of your system when you're not in, send you reminder e-mail of upcoming events (anniversaries, birthdays, etc.), or do other periodic/repetitive type "system maintenance" tasks. (if you have used Windows 95 with the Microsoft "Plus! Pack" isntalled, this feature is quite similar to the "System Agent" program that comes with Plus!.) One of hte things FreeBSD is set up to do, by default, is use "cron" to run special "clean up" type jobs every night. There are three jobs that are set up to run. These are: Daily -- runs every day at 2:00 A.M. This job reports on general system status. It e-mails you with info on your system -- how full your hard disk(s) are (and how much space is left), how well your network (or dial-up connection) is working, when you have last done a backup (and when backups need to be done), etc. It also checks every file on your computer, for possible security violations (in case some malicious hacker has managed to slip a security breach in while you weren't looking). Weekly -- runs every week, on Saturday morning, at 3:30 AM. This job rebuilds special data-bases that make searching "man" pages and searching for speicfic files on your hard drive run much faster. Monthly -- runs every month, on the 1st of that month, at 5:30 AM. This job basically runs system accounting - it reports on what your users have been doing, and how much "cpu time" they have used up, etc. It souds like you ran into one of these jobs. (My guess is the "daily" job.) My sadvice to you: Don't Panic. These jobs do very beneficial and good things, and can only stand to benefit both you and your system. They don't really slow you down that much, either. --- Donald Burr - Ask me for my PGP key | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ #1347455 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FreeBSD - Turning PCs into Workstations - http://www.freebsd.org/ (NOTE: POBoxes.com appears to be working again -- fire away!) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message