[comp.unix.wizards] wanted: suggested features for my PD cron program

paul@vixie.UUCP (Paul Vixie Esq) (12/31/86)

The ATT System V cron system is, I think, better than the one in BSD.  Because
the effort involved is trivial, I am writing a PD version of cron that will be
compatible with SVID.  In fact, it's about done.

However, I'm starting to wonder if some other features would be popular, like
specifying days of the week or months of the year by name instead of by number.
I would, of course, accept either -- the thing DOES HAVE to be compatible.

Anyone else know of any downward-compatible extensions they'd like to see in a
PD cron program ?  Please send mail, I'll summarize to the net.

-- 
Paul A. Vixie        {ptsfa, qantel, crash, winfree}!vixie!paul
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CA  94116            paul@vixie.UUCP     (415) 864-7013

pedz@bobkat.UUCP (Pedz Thing) (01/02/87)

Log files!  It would be nice to be able to specify a log for cron
itself and also a log for each program's stdout and stderr to go to.
The latter can of course be done with > and 2> but it would be nice if
there could be a single line with some sort of pattern like
`> /usr/spool/log/%' and the command would be substituted for the %.
Another thing which would be nice is to be able to specify which shell
to call to give the command to.
-- 
Perry Smith
{convex!ctvax,{ti-csl,infotel}!pollux}!bobkat!pedz

guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) (01/05/87)

> Log files!  It would be nice to be able to specify a log for cron
> itself and also a log for each program's stdout and stderr to go to.

S5R2's "cron" has a log file for "cron"; the stdout and stderr for each
command are sent to a temporary file which is mailed to the user under whose
UID the job was run, if any output is produced.  (Remember, the S5R2 "cron"
has one crontab per user, and that user can change their own crontab.)

> Another thing which would be nice is to be able to specify which shell
> to call to give the command to.

Well, the obvious choice would be the user's shell, but this wouldn't work
for accounts like "uucico".