daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) (05/16/89)
This topic was bandied about recently, however I can't recall the resolution.
The machine is a standard 386 running SCO 2.3.1. The cron task has
functioned normally since installing 2.3.1 (in fact, since the first
installation of 2.1.3 back in '86). All-of-a-sudden, last Friday it
stops running.
A 'ps' shows cron is still alive, yet it has not run any tasks since.
There were no mail messages from 'login' to root (usually how cron message
are mailed) indicating a problem.
A basic cron debugger ("date > logfile" once-a-day) was run on the
last fateful day, but not since.
Rebooting either has no effect, or apparently will re-engage cron,
which stops cronning shortly (24 hours or so) thereafter.
Is there a SCO patch for this? Does anyone else care to share strange
cron tales? Any pointers, at all, will be appreciated.
BTW, might this have anything to do with daylight savings time changes?
--
Dave Hammond
daveh@marob.masa.comrosso@sco.COM (Ross Oliver) (05/22/89)
In article <660@marob.MASA.COM> daveh@marob.masa.com (Dave Hammond) writes
about cron ceasing to function, even though the process remains.
There are two distinct cron problems in the various versions
of SCO XENIX currently in the field. The first is that cron
runs jobs when it shouldn't, and the second is that cron seems
to go to sleep forever.
The first problem exists in all versions (86, 286, and 386) prior to
release 2.3.1: if more than about 19 hours (64K seconds) is supposed to
elapse between cron jobs, cron will execute the job at the proper time,
and again about five hours later. This is caused by the fact that the
number of seconds cron is supposed to sleep exceeds the maximum
size of the short int that is passed to alarm(S), so the elapsed
time gets truncated. This most often happens when there is only one
cron job that executes once per day. You can work around this bug by
giving cron something to do (like execute /bin/true) at least every
12 hours. This problem is fixed in release 2.3.1 and later, and a new
version of cron is available from Tech Support for 286 and 386 2.2.3.
The second problem exists only in 386 versions, and is actually a bug in
the operating system itself. As I understand it, the parameter passed
to alarm(S) by a 286 process (which cron is) is incorrectly sign-extended
when converted to a 386 int. Thus, the alarm signal is scheduled
to be sent in 20 years rather than tomorrow morning, and cron
goes to sleep for a very long time. This is fixed in release 2.3.2.
Like the first problem, you can also fix it by giving cron some
extra things to do so it never has to sleep for more than 12 hours.
Ross Oliver
Technical Support
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.tbetz@dasys1.UUCP (TOM BETZ) (05/24/89)
Quoth daveh@marob.masa.com (Dave Hammond) in <660@marob.MASA.COM>: [ details of standard-issue 2.3.1 cron bug deleted ] |Rebooting either has no effect, or apparently will re-engage cron, |which stops cronning shortly (24 hours or so) thereafter. | |Is there a SCO patch for this? Does anyone else care to share strange |cron tales? Any pointers, at all, will be appreciated. SCO CRON Fix# xnx080 No troubles at all since I installed it. |BTW, might this have anything to do with daylight savings time changes? I doubt it. -- "Tell me, is this Heaven?" | Tom Betz, 114 Woodworth "No, it's Iowa." | Yonkers, NY 10701-2509 | (914) 375-1510 "Iowa... I could have >sworn< it was Heaven." | cmcl2!dasys1!tbetz
jpr@dasys1.UUCP (Jean-Pierre Radley) (05/27/89)
In article <660@marob.MASA.COM> daveh@marob.masa.com (Dave Hammond) writes: >The machine is a standard 386 running SCO 2.3.1. The cron task has >functioned normally since installing 2.3.1 (in fact, since the first >installation of 2.1.3 back in '86). All-of-a-sudden, last Friday it >stops running. Seems that the cure for this is to give cron something to do more frequently, such as: 20 1,7,13,19 * * * /bin/true -- Jean-Pierre Radley CIS: 72160,1341 jpr@jpradley.UUCP
pete@ittg.UUCP (2301) (05/31/89)
In article <9772@dasys1.UUCP> tbetz@dasys1.UUCP (TOM BETZ) writes: >Quoth daveh@marob.masa.com (Dave Hammond) in <660@marob.MASA.COM>: >[ details of standard-issue 2.3.1 cron bug deleted ] >|Rebooting either has no effect, or apparently will re-engage cron, >|which stops cronning shortly (24 hours or so) thereafter. >| >|Is there a SCO patch for this? Does anyone else care to share strange >|cron tales? Any pointers, at all, will be appreciated. > >SCO CRON Fix# xnx080 > >No troubles at all since I installed it. Sorry if this one got posted and answered in the last few days, my newsfeed went down over Memorial Day weekend :-( I received and printed the posting <19@consult.UUCP> today which gives us a list of the xnx*.* SLS fixes. However, I did not see "xnx080" on this list and am wondering if it lurks somewhere upon the 'sosco' machine and is available via the anonymous UUCP that Bob posted. Thanks ahead, and all that, -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pete Sherwood pete@ittg.UUCP uunet!usm3b2!ittg!pete Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe, Princeton, Maine Voice 207-796-2301 8-4 EDT ============================================================================
root@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US (Mark J. Bailey) (06/04/89)
Just a note for those using sosco from SCO.... Be sure and download
the '~uucp/SLS/info' file regularly as it seems to change on a fair;y
often basis. xnx080.* was present 6/3/89 when I called and picked it
up. While not listed in the Usenet posting of the info file, it was
in a newer version of info that I have.
Hope this helps.
Mark.
--
Mark J. Bailey "Ya'll com bak naw, ya hear!"
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