CRON(8) | System Manager's Manual | CRON(8) |
cron
— clock
daemon
cron |
[-n ] [-l
load_avg] |
The cron
daemon schedules commands to be
run at specified dates and times. Commands that are to be run periodically
are specified within crontab(5) files.
Commands that are only to be run once are scheduled via the
at(1) and
batch(1) commands. Normally, the
cron
daemon is started from the
/etc/rc command script. Because it can execute
commands on a user's behalf, cron
should be run late
in the startup sequence, as close to the time when logins are accepted as
possible.
cron
loads
crontab(5) and
at(1) files when it starts up and also when
changes are made via the crontab(1) and
at(1) commands. Additionally,
cron
checks the modification time on the system
crontab file (/etc/crontab), the crontab spool
(/var/cron/tabs), and the at spool
(/var/cron/atjobs) once a minute. If the
modification time has changed, the affected files are reloaded.
Any output produced by a command is sent to the user specified in
the MAILTO
environment variable as set in the
crontab(5) file or, if no
MAILTO
variable is set (or if this is an
at(1) or
batch(1) job), to the job's owner. If a
command produces no output or if the MAILTO
environment variable is set to the empty string, no mail will be sent. The
exception to this is at(1) or
batch(1) jobs submitted with the
-m
flag. In this case, mail will be sent even if the
job produces no output.
Local time changes of less than three hours, such as those caused by the start or end of Daylight Saving Time, are handled specially. This only applies to jobs that run at a specific time and jobs that are run with a granularity greater than one hour. Jobs that run more frequently are scheduled normally.
If time has moved forward, those jobs that would have run in the interval that has been skipped will be run immediately. Conversely, if time has moved backward, care is taken to avoid running jobs twice.
Time changes of more than 3 hours are considered to be corrections to the clock or time zone, and the new time is used immediately.
The options are as follows:
-l
load_avg-n
cron
will detach from the current tty
and become a daemon. The -n
option disables this
behavior and causes it to run in the foreground.cron
to check for crontab changes immediatelyPaul Vixie <vixie@isc.org>
crontab(5) files will be ignored if they do not have the proper file mode. For user crontab files created by crontab(1), the mode must be 0600. If the system crontab file is used, /etc/crontab must not be writable by any user other than root and must not have the execute, set-user-ID, set-group-ID or sticky bits set.
January 25, 2019 | OpenBSD-current |