projects / unix-history / blame
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1 | .\" $Header: crond.8,v 2.1 90/07/18 00:23:40 vixie Exp $ |
| 2 | .\" | |
| 3 | .\"/* Copyright 1988,1990 by Paul Vixie | |
| 4 | .\" * All rights reserved | |
| 5 | .\" * | |
| 6 | .\" * Distribute freely, except: don't remove my name from the source or | |
| 7 | .\" * documentation (don't take credit for my work), mark your changes (don't | |
| 8 | .\" * get me blamed for your possible bugs), don't alter or remove this | |
| 9 | .\" * notice. May be sold if buildable source is provided to buyer. No | |
| 10 | .\" * warrantee of any kind, express or implied, is included with this | |
| 11 | .\" * software; use at your own risk, responsibility for damages (if any) to | |
| 12 | .\" * anyone resulting from the use of this software rests entirely with the | |
| 13 | .\" * user. | |
| 14 | .\" * | |
| 15 | .\" * Send bug reports, bug fixes, enhancements, requests, flames, etc., and | |
| 16 | .\" * I'll try to keep a version up to date. I can be reached as follows: | |
| 17 | .\" * Paul Vixie, 329 Noe Street, San Francisco, CA, 94114, (415) 864-7013, | |
| 18 | .\" * paul@vixie.sf.ca.us || {hoptoad,pacbell,decwrl,crash}!vixie!paul | |
| 19 | .\" */ | |
| 20 | .TH CROND 8 "15 Nov 1988" | |
| 21 | .UC 4 | |
| 22 | .SH NAME | |
| 23 | crond \- daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron) | |
| 24 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
| 25 | crond | |
| 26 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
| 27 | .I Crond | |
| 28 | should be started from /etc/rc or /etc/rc.local. It will return immediately, | |
| 29 | so you don't need to start it with '&'. | |
| 30 | .PP | |
| 31 | .I Crond | |
| 32 | searches /var/cron/tabs for crontab files which are named after accounts in | |
| 33 | /etc/passwd; crontabs found are loaded into memory. | |
| 34 | .I Crond | |
| 35 | then wakes up every minute, examining all stored crontabs, checking each | |
| 36 | command to see if it should be run in the current minute. When executing | |
| 37 | commands, any output is mailed to the owner of the crontab (or to the user | |
| 38 | named in the MAILTO environment variable in the crontab, if such exists). | |
| 39 | .PP | |
| 40 | Additionally, | |
| 41 | .I crond | |
| 42 | checks each minute to see if its spool directory's modtime has changed, and | |
| 43 | if it has, | |
| 44 | .I crond | |
| 45 | will then examine the modtime on all crontabs and reload those which have | |
| 46 | changed. Thus | |
| 47 | .I crond | |
| 48 | need not be restarted whenever a crontab file is modified. Note that the | |
| 49 | .IR Crontab (1) | |
| 50 | command updates the modtime of the spool directory whenever it changes a | |
| 51 | crontab. | |
| 52 | .SH "SEE ALSO" | |
| 53 | crontab(1), crontab(5) | |
| 54 | .SH AUTHOR | |
| 55 | .nf | |
| 56 | Paul Vixie, paul@vixie.sf.ca.us |