While Cron doesn't use /usr/lib/crontab config files anymore,
you should keep it or make a backup in case something goes south.
The main goal of the conversion is split your existing config
into smaller bite sized pieces that each fulfill a specific role.
The most significant feature of this Cron is the ability
to move news & uucp commands into files owned
and maintained by those users.
Please remove all the su commands from your config.
On BSD 4.3, there's no need for su since the username
appears in the command, however I would recommend
using separate Crontabs for separate environments.
Most commands in your most CronTabs
Are run by Ｒｏｏｔ
Have to be run by Ｒｏｏｔ
Should continue be run by Ｒｏｏｔ
The recommended folder layout for your configs.
The crontab command copies all used configs
into a protected folder at <CRONDIR>/SPOOL_DIR
This means that it generally doesn't matter where
you keep your configs, however choosing a good
location helps to keep things tidy.
It's recommended to name your config files
crontab.src
| Type | Suggested Location |
|---|---|
| Root | /etc/crontab.src or /usr/adm/crontab.src |
| News | /usr/lib/news/crontab.src |
| UUCP | /usr/lib/uucp/crontab.src |
Install your configs with the crontab command,
probably with -u <Username> ( See man pages )
The crontab command can also be used
to examine, replace and delete a CronTab.
On this version your config might look like this
5 * * * * su uucp < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr
10 4 * * * su uucp < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.day
15 5 * * 0 su uucp < /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.wkOr this
5 * * * * echo /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr | su uucp
10 4 * * * echo /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.day | su uucp
15 5 * * 0 echo /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.wk | su uucpHere they might look a little bit better already
5 * * * * uucp /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hr
10 4 * * * uucp /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.day
15 5 * * 0 uucp /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.wkIn the updated version you would want to create use a dedicated file like
/usr/lib/uucp/crontab.src to put the uucp specific commands into.
It might look something like this:
# UUCP's Crontab
# at /usr/lib/uucp/crontab.src
SHELL = /bin/sh
PATH = /usr/lib/uucp:/bin:/usr/bin
HOME = /usr/lib/uucp
5 * * * * uudemon.hr
10 4 * * * uudemon.day
15 5 * * 0 uudemon.wkIf you run a BSD 4.2 derived Cron, you can of course just
install your current CronTab in toto as the root's CronTab.
It would work exactly the way your current one does,
barring the additional steps in installing / changing it.
There would still be advantages to this Cron ,
mainly getting mail every time there is some
output from your Cron commands.
It is likely you will find your commands to generate
a lot of output, after installing this version of Cron.
To mitigate this, you can redirect all expected
output to a per-execution log file, to only keep
the output from the last execution.
This way only unexpected output will be mailed to you.
This might take a while to get right, however once it
works, it will be very convenient and worth the effort.