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