res@colnet.uucp (Rob Stampfli) (02/07/91)
I have just been experimenting with a problem I had with cnews running on an AT&T Unix-PC (3B1) (3.51m OS). Occasionally, newsrun would terminate prematurely, leaving partially uncompressed files. No news was lost -- the problem was self correcting on the next invocation of newsrun. It did leave partially uncompressed news files in the incoming news directory, though. I traced this problem to the use of the <MSG> key on the console -- apparently all processes attached to w5 (SMGR) get the SIGINT signal (Signal 2) each time the <MSG> key on the console is depressed! The scenerio goes like this: Newsrun comes across a control message and sends the news administrator (me) mail. I am on the console and press <MSG> to see what the mail is. Newsrun gets SIGINT, and terminates. I have changed newsrun to ignore signal 2. Since newsrun is a shell script, this was fairly easy to do. Obviously, this is not a cnews problem. Cnews merely makes the SMGR bug more visible due to the long-running nature of its crontab scripts. I post this to the the news.software.b group only to warn 3B1 users of cnews who might not otherwise see this. For us 3B1 owners, I think we need to investigate what the full implications of this phenomenon are. Obviously, the use of the <MSG> key can interfere with the execution of crontab processes if they are not explicitly protected. Anyone have any ideas? -- Rob Stampfli, 614-864-9377, res@kd8wk.uucp (osu-cis!kd8wk!res), kd8wk@n8jyv.oh
donlash@uncle.uucp (Donald Lashomb) (02/08/91)
In article <1991Feb7.055142.21744@colnet.uucp> res@colnet.uucp (Rob Stampfli) writes:
=I have just been experimenting with a problem I had with cnews running on
=an AT&T Unix-PC (3B1) (3.51m OS). Occasionally, newsrun would terminate
=prematurely, leaving partially uncompressed files. No news was lost -- the
=problem was self correcting on the next invocation of newsrun. It did leave
=partially uncompressed news files in the incoming news directory, though.
=
=I traced this problem to the use of the <MSG> key on the console -- apparently
=all processes attached to w5 (SMGR) get the SIGINT signal (Signal 2) each time
=the <MSG> key on the console is depressed! The scenerio goes like this:
[...]
=For us 3B1 owners, I think we need to investigate what the full implications
=of this phenomenon are. Obviously, the use of the <MSG> key can interfere
=with the execution of crontab processes if they are not explicitly protected.
=Anyone have any ideas?
You might want to try my version of cron (recently posted to alt.sources and
unix-pc.sources). Crontab jobs in my version run unattached to any tty.
BTW- you also get at(1), batch(1) and user crontab(1) with my cron.
Unabashedly,
Don donlash@uncle.UUCPdnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (DoN Nichols) (02/09/91)
In article <1991Feb8.030832.10976@uncle.uucp> donlash@uncle.UUCP (Donald Lashomb) writes: >In article <1991Feb7.055142.21744@colnet.uucp> res@colnet.uucp (Rob Stampfli) writes: >=I have just been experimenting with a problem I had with cnews running on >=an AT&T Unix-PC (3B1) (3.51m OS). Occasionally, newsrun would terminate >=prematurely, leaving partially uncompressed files. No news was lost -- the [...] >=with the execution of crontab processes if they are not explicitly protected. >=Anyone have any ideas? > >You might want to try my version of cron (recently posted to alt.sources and >unix-pc.sources). Crontab jobs in my version run unattached to any tty. >BTW- you also get at(1), batch(1) and user crontab(1) with my cron. But, I never got the last part of that posting! I remember some other complaints, then I was in the throes of switching over from getting forwarded copies of the unix-pc.* groups to running Cnews, and something may have fallen in the bit-bucket at that time. If others have not gotten everything as well, can this be re-posted as a comp.sources.3b1 entry? Thanks DoN. -- Donald Nichols (DoN.) | Voice (Days): (703) 664-1585 D&D Data | Voice (Eves): (703) 938-4564 Disclaimer: from here - None | Email: <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com> --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---