vijay@albanycs.Albany.Edu (Vijay Vaidyanathan) (10/17/89)
I've had this problem for a while, and thought that it was unique to my system till I found it happening to a friends system too. Every few days (sometimes more often, sometimes less!), the clock display on the top line of the UNIXPC screen vanishes. I have to su and then run /etc/smgr, and alls fine. Is this serious? Symptomatic of some strange terminal illness ? So, how long do I have ?? While I'm at it, What is/ Why is uucp from HDB any different from the stock uucp (with the patch) from AT&T ? If its any better, then where can I get a copy of it from ?? Thanks. - Vijay ------- vijay@cssun.albany.edu, vijay@albanycs.albany.edu -------
jeff@jeffpc.UUCP (Jeff Trim) (10/20/89)
In article <342@albanycs.Albany.Edu> vijay@albanycs.Albany.Edu (Vijay Vaidyanathan) writes: Because this may or may not be common knowledge: 'smgr' and 'cron' are EQUIVILENTS - This is in reference to the 3B1 Unix Pc... So you may freely substitute '/etc/cron' for '/etc/smgr' throughout this posting. >Every few days (sometimes more often, sometimes less!), the clock >display on the top line of the UNIXPC screen vanishes. I have to >su and then run /etc/smgr, and alls fine. Is this serious? Symptomatic >of some strange terminal illness ? So, how long do I have ?? Ummm loosing your 'cron' can be hazerdous to your health - yes ;-) cron does things like set the current time/date - schedules everything on your system - you really shouldn't operate without it ..... One of the things I have noticed about the 3B1 is that it doesn't like to let you start processes in background and then logoff ;-( I think it doesn't dis-associate the PARENT process from the background process and basically it kills the background process when you are no longer around (ala have logged out). What is needed is a way to disassociate processes from your TTY - that way it runs like a daemon ... the way 'smgr' is supposed to run... If your 'cron' is dieing that is not very good ;-( If you are having troubles like that here's how I would go about searching for a remedy: 1) READ your 'cronlog' file ;-) (hehe I guess I am guilty of not listening to my system as well ;-) (/usr/adm/cronlog) 2) check your '/usr/lib/crontab' file for processes that might be doing nasty things to your system. Basically you are looking for something that you run via crontab that *might* be crashing your 'smgr' (cron). Another way to get around this and the (above) problem is to utilize the '/etc/daemons' directory - this is checked at BOOT TIME for 'user-written' processes that want to be STARTED without TTY association - in this way you will have a running background daemon that you can safely logoff and leave running - it shouldn't die unless it 'abends' or dumps core on you, system dies, etc..etc. This will ONLY work if you are 'root' or your 3B1 - as it is found in the /etc directory .. the superusers happy home ;) One thing further - 'smgr' should startup at boot time and never die, it's a pretty important process. If it is dying then you may have problems -- anyone out in net-land have any ideas about this?? Hope that was of some help -- if I am gravely mistaken someone will censor me ;-) (nothing like USENET ;-) >Thanks. >- Vijay >------- >vijay@cssun.albany.edu, vijay@albanycs.albany.edu >------- No prob, - Jeff -- INET: jeff@jeffpc.eds.com UUCP: [ uunet, teemc ]!{edsews, glc}!jeffpc!jeff
brant@manta.pha.pa.us (Brant Cheikes) (10/24/89)
In article <139@jeffpc.UUCP> jeff@jeffpc.UUCP (Jeff Trim) writes: >Because this may or may not be common knowledge: 'smgr' and 'cron' are >EQUIVILENTS - This is in reference to the 3B1 Unix Pc... Sorry, but this is absolutely false. /etc/smgr and /etc/cron on the UNIXpc are not equivalent at all, as a simple ls -l would prove. Cron is the "standard" System V clock daemon, whereas smgr is a cron superset: it performs all the functions of cron, and more. Besides its cron functions, smgr controls the date and time display at the top of the display, drives the mail, calendar, and disk-space-low icons, and also performs certain system error logging activities (smgr is the one behind those [!] and [!!] icons). Smgr is the preferred clock daemon on the UNIXpc. PLEASE folks, it's great to try to help, but first try to be reasonably sure of your facts, lest you possibly do more harm than good. >One of the things I have noticed about the 3B1 is that it doesn't >like to let you start processes in background and then logoff [...] No, it likes that fine. You just need to read about nohup(1). As for WHY smgr is dying, that I cannot fathom, so I'm going to take my own advice and be quiet. -- Brant Cheikes University of Pennsylvania, Department of Computer and Information Science brant@manta.pha.pa.us, brant@linc.cis.upenn.edu, bpa!manta!brant
wtr@moss.ATT.COM (3673,ATTT) (10/25/89)
In article <498@manta.pha.pa.us> brant@manta.pha.pa.us (Brant Cheikes) writes: >In article <139@jeffpc.UUCP> jeff@jeffpc.UUCP (Jeff Trim) writes: >>Because this may or may not be common knowledge: 'smgr' and 'cron' are >>EQUIVILENTS - This is in reference to the 3B1 Unix Pc... >Sorry, but this is absolutely false. /etc/smgr and /etc/cron on the >UNIXpc are not equivalent at all, as a simple ls -l would prove. Woah! Down Boy! Now lets read... slowly :-) /etc/smgr and /etc/cron are *equivilents*, not the same. Perhaps Jeff should have said something along the order of "functional" equivilents. >Cron is the "standard" System V clock daemon,... >whereas smgr is a cron superset,... >Smgr is the preferred clock daemon on the UNIXpc. You said it yourself, there *both* clock daemons. However, the cron supplied with the 3B1 is somewhat different that the cron/crontab (and atjob) utilities supplied with real SysV rel2&3 I don't believe the the 3B1 cron is the "standard" >PLEASE folks, it's great to try to help, but first try to be >reasonably sure of your facts, lest you possibly do more harm than >good. Agreed, but also please read the messages try to understand what the other is saying. We aren't all as eloquent as we'ld like to believe :-) >>One of the things I have noticed about the 3B1 is that it doesn't >>like to let you start processes in background and then logoff [...] > >No, it likes that fine. You just need to read about nohup(1). I remember a case when running remotely on a friends 3b1. nohup'ing a background job and trying to exit. the exit would be aborted with a "process left in background" message. I don't run too many nohup'd jobs on my home machine. To exit after nohup'ing, just type "exit <return>" twice, without any intervening commands. It likes it fine. You just have to try it. :-) >Brant Cheikes -bill rankin -- ===================================================================== Bill Rankin email address: att!moss!wtr was: Bell Labs, Whippany NJ att!bromo!wtr now: AT&T Federal Systems, Burlington NC (919) 228 3673 (cornet 291)