[gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Matt Harrison]

I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly first time, not
even on the archives.

Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why, but every so
often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in
the logs, the service just stops.

I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping someone here has
some good ideas :)

thanks in advance

Matt

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Matt Harrison
<iwasinnamuknow@genestate.com> wrote:
> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly first time, not
> even on the archives.
>
> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why, but every so
> often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in
> the logs, the service just stops.
>
> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping someone here has
> some good ideas :)
>
> thanks in advance
>
> Matt
>
>
>

It did arrive here the first time Matt. Just responding so you know
it's getting through.

- Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly
> first time, not even on the archives.
> 
> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why, but
> every so often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just stops.
> There's nothing in the logs, the service just stops.
> 
> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping someone
> here has some good ideas :)
> 
> thanks in advance
> 
> Matt

You probably don't want to hear this, but:

vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with it's 
weird behaviours.

Use a different cron daemon.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Matt Harrison]

On 15/04/2010 09:20, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> 
> vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with it's 
> weird behaviours.
> 
> Use a different cron daemon.
> 

I don't mind hearing this :) I only use vixie-cron as that is what I
started with (I think from the old install documents), I'm not tied to
it at all. I has worked perfectly on several installs until this problem
appeared.

I've switched to fcron on that machine and it seems to be ok so far,
only time will tell. From now on I'll use fcron by default to avoid this
problem happening again.

Thanks

[gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Francesco Talamona]

On Thursday 15 April 2010, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> > I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post
> > correctly first time, not even on the archives.
> > 
> > Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out
> > why, but every so often (anything between a week or an hour)
> > vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service
> > just stops.
> > 
> > I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping
> > someone here has some good ideas :)
> > 
> > thanks in advance
> > 
> > Matt
> 
> You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> 
> vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with
> it's weird behaviours.
> 
> Use a different cron daemon.

Your advice is vague :)

I use app-admin/syslog-ng and I wouldn't change, Alan you too can try 
it.

Ciao
  Francesco

-- 
Linux Version 2.6.33-gentoo-r1, Compiled #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Apr 10 
17:35:50 CEST 2010
Two 2.9GHz AMD Athlon 64 Processors, 4GB RAM, 11659 Bogomips Total
aemaeth

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Stroller]

On 16 Apr 2010, at 18:58, Francesco Talamona wrote:
> On Thursday 15 April 2010, Alan McKinnon wrote:
>> ...
>> You probably don't want to hear this, but:
>>
>> vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with
>> it's weird behaviours.
>>
>> Use a different cron daemon.
>
> Your advice is vague :)
>
> I use app-admin/syslog-ng and I wouldn't change, Alan you too can try
> it.

syslog-ng is a system logger, not a cron daemon.

I appreciate this is an easy mistake to make, as they are adjacent in  
the Gentoo installation instructions, and we generally ignore both  
components when they are working normally.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Friday 16 April 2010 19:58:23 Francesco Talamona wrote:
> On Thursday 15 April 2010, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> > > I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post
> > > correctly first time, not even on the archives.
> > > 
> > > Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out
> > > why, but every so often (anything between a week or an hour)
> > > vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service
> > > just stops.
> > > 
> > > I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping
> > > someone here has some good ideas :)
> > > 
> > > thanks in advance
> > > 
> > > Matt
> > 
> > You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> > 
> > vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with
> > it's weird behaviours.
> > 
> > Use a different cron daemon.
> 
> Your advice is vague :)

To answer this point:

vixie-cron does not reliably restart. You have to remember to kill it, verify 
that it is indeed dead, then start it.

Of course, my use case is a lot more complex than just /etc/cron.*/* and yes, 
I do expect a cron daemon to cope with my needs in it's stride. It's not hard 
to cope with a 1000 line crontab. I have auth daemons running on ancient 
hardware with 256M RAM that have to deal with 100+ auth requests a second and 
a 5000-line config file. Despite my needs being complex, any cron daemon 
should cope with that without breaking a sweat

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[kashani]

On 4/15/2010 1:20 AM, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
>> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly
>> first time, not even on the archives.
>>
>> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why, but
>> every so often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just stops.
>> There's nothing in the logs, the service just stops.
>>
>> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping someone
>> here has some good ideas :)
>>
>> thanks in advance
>>
>> Matt
>
> You probably don't want to hear this, but:
>
> vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with it's
> weird behaviours.
>
> Use a different cron daemon.
>

Strange. I've never had a problem with it and Gentoo though I use Gentoo 
primarily as a server.

kashani

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mick]

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On Friday 16 April 2010 19:22:42 kashani wrote:
> On 4/15/2010 1:20 AM, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> >> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly
> >> first time, not even on the archives.
> >>
> >> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why,
> >> but every so often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just
> >> stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service just stops.
> >>
> >> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping
> >> someone here has some good ideas :)
> >>
> >> thanks in advance
> >>
> >> Matt
> >
> > You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> >
> > vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with it's
> > weird behaviours.
> >
> > Use a different cron daemon.
> 
> Strange. I've never had a problem with it and Gentoo though I use Gentoo
> primarily as a server.
> 
> kashani

+1

I have been running Vixie's cron for a good few years on 4 different machines 
(3 different arches) and have not noticed any problems.  On the other hand I 
am only running some basic cron jobs (e.g. , updatedb, mrtg).

Have you looked at /root/dead.letter in case there is a problem that is 
captured there (although I would expect to see something in the logs to be 
honest)?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Dale]

Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
>    
>> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly
>> first time, not even on the archives.
>>
>> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why, but
>> every so often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just stops.
>> There's nothing in the logs, the service just stops.
>>
>> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping someone
>> here has some good ideas :)
>>
>> thanks in advance
>>
>> Matt
>>      
> You probably don't want to hear this, but:
>
> vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with it's
> weird behaviours.
>
> Use a different cron daemon.
>
>    

I am using vixie as well.  It was in the install guide many years ago.  
What all would have to be changed to switch to fcron?  I think some 
packages "detect" which cron you have installed and put things in the 
proper place for cron jobs to run.  I could be wrong on that since it 
has been a while since I noticed packages doing this.

Dale

:-)   :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> >> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly
> >> first time, not even on the archives.
> >> 
> >> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out why,
> >> but every so often (anything between a week or an hour) vixie-cron just
> >> stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service just stops.
> >> 
> >> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping
> >> someone here has some good ideas :)
> >> 
> >> thanks in advance
> >> 
> >> Matt
> > 
> > You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> > 
> > vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with it's
> > weird behaviours.
> > 
> > Use a different cron daemon.
> 
> I am using vixie as well.  It was in the install guide many years ago.
> What all would have to be changed to switch to fcron?  I think some
> packages "detect" which cron you have installed and put things in the
> proper place for cron jobs to run.  I could be wrong on that since it
> has been a while since I noticed packages doing this.


emerge -C vixie-cron && emerge <other cron of your choice>

You might have to tweak crontabs.

I have come to detest with a passion every piece of software written or 
inspired by Paul Vixie. It took 10-15 years to get bind into a shape where it 
takes less than 20 minutes to start here, it's low, buggy and performance is 
pathetic. dhcp is just way too complex for my liking, ...

... and as for vixie-cron: When software doesn't act like it's supposed to, 
breaks in horrible ways without giving me any clue (like, "cron restart" works 
with no known init scripts on any platform I have) and instead says "cron 
restarted [OK]", which brings down 5000 Cisco devices as as a nasty side 
effect, and causes a Severity 0 committee to be called, twice, then that 
software's remaining life span on my boxes is measured in milliseconds :-)

rant over

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mick]

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On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> > >> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post correctly
> > >> first time, not even on the archives.
> > >>
> > >> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out
> > >> why, but every so often (anything between a week or an hour)
> > >> vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service just
> > >> stops.
> > >>
> > >> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping
> > >> someone here has some good ideas :)
> > >>
> > >> thanks in advance
> > >>
> > >> Matt
> > >
> > > You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> > >
> > > vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with
> > > it's weird behaviours.
> > >
> > > Use a different cron daemon.
> >
> > I am using vixie as well.  It was in the install guide many years ago.
> > What all would have to be changed to switch to fcron?  I think some
> > packages "detect" which cron you have installed and put things in the
> > proper place for cron jobs to run.  I could be wrong on that since it
> > has been a while since I noticed packages doing this.
> 
> emerge -C vixie-cron && emerge <other cron of your choice>
> 
> You might have to tweak crontabs.
> 
> I have come to detest with a passion every piece of software written or
> inspired by Paul Vixie. It took 10-15 years to get bind into a shape where
>  it takes less than 20 minutes to start here, it's low, buggy and
>  performance is pathetic. dhcp is just way too complex for my liking, ...
> 
> ... and as for vixie-cron: When software doesn't act like it's supposed to,
> breaks in horrible ways without giving me any clue (like, "cron restart"
>  works with no known init scripts on any platform I have) and instead says
>  "cron restarted [OK]", which brings down 5000 Cisco devices as as a nasty
>  side effect, and causes a Severity 0 committee to be called, twice, then
>  that software's remaining life span on my boxes is measured in
>  milliseconds :-)
> 
> rant over

Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!

Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 17 April 2010 10:47:15 Mick wrote:
> On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > > Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > > On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote:
> > > >> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post
> > > >> correctly first time, not even on the archives.
> > > >> 
> > > >> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out
> > > >> why, but every so often (anything between a week or an hour)
> > > >> vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service just
> > > >> stops.
> > > >> 
> > > >> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping
> > > >> someone here has some good ideas :)
> > > >> 
> > > >> thanks in advance
> > > >> 
> > > >> Matt
> > > > 
> > > > You probably don't want to hear this, but:
> > > > 
> > > > vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with
> > > > it's weird behaviours.
> > > > 
> > > > Use a different cron daemon.
> > > 
> > > I am using vixie as well.  It was in the install guide many years ago.
> > > What all would have to be changed to switch to fcron?  I think some
> > > packages "detect" which cron you have installed and put things in the
> > > proper place for cron jobs to run.  I could be wrong on that since it
> > > has been a while since I noticed packages doing this.
> > 
> > emerge -C vixie-cron && emerge <other cron of your choice>
> > 
> > You might have to tweak crontabs.
> > 
> > I have come to detest with a passion every piece of software written or
> > inspired by Paul Vixie. It took 10-15 years to get bind into a shape
> > where
> > 
> >  it takes less than 20 minutes to start here, it's low, buggy and
> >  performance is pathetic. dhcp is just way too complex for my liking, ...
> > 
> > ... and as for vixie-cron: When software doesn't act like it's supposed
> > to, breaks in horrible ways without giving me any clue (like, "cron
> > restart"
> > 
> >  works with no known init scripts on any platform I have) and instead
> >  says "cron restarted [OK]", which brings down 5000 Cisco devices as as
> >  a nasty side effect, and causes a Severity 0 committee to be called,
> >  twice, then that software's remaining life span on my boxes is measured
> >  in
> >  milliseconds :-)
> > 
> > rant over
> 
> Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> 
> Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?

Strangely enough, I'd tell folk to use vixie-cron if it's already working for 
them and they know it. I don't see the point in advising someone to switch a 
package that is working well for them and doing it's job.

Most folk let cron be installed then they never touch it again, or add at most 
a few entries. Everything they need or want to be done is covered with the 
default /etc/cron.*/*. Why change it? Besides, they know how to work vixie-
cron.

But if they are run into problems or weird errors (like the OP where the thing 
just dies), then fcron is good.


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

[gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Lie Ryan]

On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
> On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
>> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> 
> Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> 
> Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?


One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed vixie
because the installation manual says to, but never need to write any
cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program I uses
installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:59:09 Lie Ryan wrote:
> On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
> > On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> >> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> > 
> > Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
> 
> One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed vixie
> because the installation manual says to, but never need to write any
> cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program I uses
> installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?

A default install will configure cron to run

mkwhatis
slocate
logrotate
updatepciids
updateusbids

These are all very useful and your machine is somewhat crippled without them.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

[gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Lie Ryan]

On 04/17/10 23:08, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:59:09 Lie Ryan wrote:
>> On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
>>> On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
>>>> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
>>> Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
>>>
>>> Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
>>
>> One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed vixie
>> because the installation manual says to, but never need to write any
>> cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program I uses
>> installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?
> 
> A default install will configure cron to run
> 
> mkwhatis
> slocate
> logrotate
> updatepciids
> updateusbids

I don't install `locate` as I don't have that many files to start with
and `find` is more than adequate for when I need to search (and I
typically only do searches on newly downloaded file or system files,
those that aren't indexed in locate's database in the first place). In a
typical desktop system you only rarely actually read logs (typically
only when debugging kernel, X, and failed emerge; you don't meet kernel
OOPS every day, don't you?), for the rest of the times I could probably
live without logging and I can turn it on when I need to examine some
logs. A typical desktop system do not update their hardware everyday and
running those updater programs manually isn't such a pain when you do
(on the other hand I run `emerge --sync` and `q -r` every week, but then
I still much prefer running emerges manually). And bash's tab completion
is much more efficient for searching commands than `whatis`.

So I don't think a typical desktop system gets crippled much without
cron (or even logging). Yes, you lose some features, and you will need
to manually update system's database and do certain things manually
which otherwise would have been handled for you; but if I have to choose
between wasting system resources running cron/logging or losing features
I use once in a month, I probably would not bother with cron.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mick]

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On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:08:22 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:59:09 Lie Ryan wrote:
> > On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
> > > On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > >> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > >
> > > Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> > >
> > > Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
> >
> > One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed vixie
> > because the installation manual says to, but never need to write any
> > cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program I uses
> > installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?
> 
> A default install will configure cron to run
> 
> mkwhatis
> slocate
> logrotate
> updatepciids
> updateusbids
> 
> These are all very useful and your machine is somewhat crippled without
>  them.
> 
Hmm... mine has:

 ls -la /etc/cron.daily/
total 10
drwxr-x---  2 root root   7 Mar 14 19:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 160 Apr 17 14:58 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Jan 21 01:33 .keep
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Feb 28 15:13 .keep_sys-process_cronbase-0
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  52 Feb 28 15:15 logrotate.cron
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 115 Mar 14 19:11 makewhatis
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 152 Feb 28 15:15 slocate

but not updatepciids and updateusbids.  Grant you I don't need them daily, but 
last time I checked I had to update these myself.  Should they have been added 
automatically in my /etc/cron.daily/*  ?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 17 April 2010 17:10:14 Mick wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:08:22 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:59:09 Lie Ryan wrote:
> > > On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
> > > > On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > >> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > > > Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> > > > 
> > > > Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
> > > 
> > > One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed vixie
> > > because the installation manual says to, but never need to write any
> > > cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program I uses
> > > installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?
> > 
> > A default install will configure cron to run
> > 
> > mkwhatis
> > slocate
> > logrotate
> > updatepciids
> > updateusbids
> > 
> > These are all very useful and your machine is somewhat crippled without
> > 
> >  them.
> 
> Hmm... mine has:
> 
>  ls -la /etc/cron.daily/
> total 10
> drwxr-x---  2 root root   7 Mar 14 19:11 .
> drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 160 Apr 17 14:58 ..
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Jan 21 01:33 .keep
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Feb 28 15:13 .keep_sys-process_cronbase-0
> -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  52 Feb 28 15:15 logrotate.cron
> -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 115 Mar 14 19:11 makewhatis
> -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 152 Feb 28 15:15 slocate
> 
> but not updatepciids and updateusbids.  Grant you I don't need them daily,
> but last time I checked I had to update these myself.  Should they have
> been added automatically in my /etc/cron.daily/*  ?

They go in cron.monthly, but no matter.

Do you have these packages installed:

nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids
 * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids ... 
sys-apps/pciutils-3.1.7 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids)
nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids 
 * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids ... 
sys-apps/usbutils-0.87 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids)


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mick]

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On Saturday 17 April 2010 16:39:19 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2010 17:10:14 Mick wrote:
> > On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:08:22 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > On Saturday 17 April 2010 14:59:09 Lie Ryan wrote:
> > > > On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
> > > > > On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > > > >> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> > > > >
> > > > > Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
> > > >
> > > > One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed
> > > > vixie because the installation manual says to, but never need to
> > > > write any cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program
> > > > I uses installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?
> > >
> > > A default install will configure cron to run
> > >
> > > mkwhatis
> > > slocate
> > > logrotate
> > > updatepciids
> > > updateusbids
> > >
> > > These are all very useful and your machine is somewhat crippled without
> > >
> > >  them.
> >
> > Hmm... mine has:
> >
> >  ls -la /etc/cron.daily/
> > total 10
> > drwxr-x---  2 root root   7 Mar 14 19:11 .
> > drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 160 Apr 17 14:58 ..
> > -rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Jan 21 01:33 .keep
> > -rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Feb 28 15:13 .keep_sys-process_cronbase-0
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  52 Feb 28 15:15 logrotate.cron
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 115 Mar 14 19:11 makewhatis
> > -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 152 Feb 28 15:15 slocate
> >
> > but not updatepciids and updateusbids.  Grant you I don't need them
> > daily, but last time I checked I had to update these myself.  Should they
> > have been added automatically in my /etc/cron.daily/*  ?
> 
> They go in cron.monthly, but no matter.
> 
> Do you have these packages installed:
> 
> nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids
>  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids ...
> sys-apps/pciutils-3.1.7 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids)
> nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids
>  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids ...
> sys-apps/usbutils-0.87 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids)

Hmm ...  Nill returns.  :-(

I have however already installed both pciutils and usbutils.

Are they meant to make entries in cron.daily when installed?

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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[gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[walt]

On 04/17/2010 11:12 AM, Mick wrote:

>
> I have however already installed both pciutils and usbutils.
>
> Are they meant to make entries in cron.daily when installed?

I just discovered the network-cron useflag, thanks :)

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Alan McKinnon]

On Saturday 17 April 2010 20:12:42 Mick wrote:
> > Do you have these packages installed:
> > 
> >
> > nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids
> >
> >  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids ...
> >
> > sys-apps/pciutils-3.1.7 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids)
> > nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids
> >
> >  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids ...
> >
> > sys-apps/usbutils-0.87 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids)
> 
> Hmm ...  Nill returns.  :-(
> 
> I have however already installed both pciutils and usbutils.
> 
> Are they meant to make entries in cron.daily when installed?

Not at all.

They are meant to install crontabs in cron.monthly

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mick]

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On Saturday 17 April 2010 21:55:52 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2010 20:12:42 Mick wrote:
> > > Do you have these packages installed:
> > >
> > >
> > > nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids
> > >
> > >  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids ...
> > >
> > > sys-apps/pciutils-3.1.7 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids)
> > > nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids
> > >
> > >  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids ...
> > >
> > > sys-apps/usbutils-0.87 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids)
> >
> > Hmm ...  Nill returns.  :-(
> >
> > I have however already installed both pciutils and usbutils.
> >
> > Are they meant to make entries in cron.daily when installed?
> 
> Not at all.
> 
> They are meant to install crontabs in cron.monthly

No luck there either:

 
# ls -la /etc/cron.monthly/
total 9
drwxr-x---  2 root root   4 Feb 28 15:13 .
drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 160 Apr 17 22:58 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Jan 21 01:33 .keep
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Feb 28 15:13 .keep_sys-process_cronbase-0

What's gone wrong?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[Mick]

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On Saturday 17 April 2010 23:01:19 you wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2010 21:55:52 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Saturday 17 April 2010 20:12:42 Mick wrote:
> > > > Do you have these packages installed:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids
> > > >
> > > >  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids ...
> > > >
> > > > sys-apps/pciutils-3.1.7 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-pciids)
> > > > nazgul ~ # equery belongs /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids
> > > >
> > > >  * Searching for /etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids ...
> > > >
> > > > sys-apps/usbutils-0.87 (/etc/cron.monthly/update-usbids)
> > >
> > > Hmm ...  Nill returns.  :-(
> > >
> > > I have however already installed both pciutils and usbutils.
> > >
> > > Are they meant to make entries in cron.daily when installed?
> >
> > Not at all.
> >
> > They are meant to install crontabs in cron.monthly
> 
> No luck there either:
> 
> 
> # ls -la /etc/cron.monthly/
> total 9
> drwxr-x---  2 root root   4 Feb 28 15:13 .
> drwxr-xr-x 74 root root 160 Apr 17 22:58 ..
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Jan 21 01:33 .keep
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root   0 Feb 28 15:13 .keep_sys-process_cronbase-0
> 
> What's gone wrong?

Doh! Just saw Walter's post - better set up network-cron flag then.  :-)
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[David Relson]

On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:59:09 +1000
Lie Ryan wrote:

> On 04/17/10 18:47, Mick wrote:
> > On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> >> On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote:
> > 
> > Blimey!  That sounds like horribly_broken!
> > 
> > Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
> 
> 
> One question, do you actually need cron for desktop? I installed vixie
> because the installation manual says to, but never need to write any
> cron rule for anything and I don't think there any program I uses
> installs a cron rule. So why bother with cron?

Possibly not.  ... depends on what you have installed.  /etc/cron.daily
has some useful stuff, notably slocate.cron.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping

[David W Noon]

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On Sat, 17 Apr 2010 23:10:01 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote about Re:
[gentoo-user] Re: vixie-cron keeps stopping:

>On Saturday 17 April 2010 20:12:42 Mick wrote:
[snip]
>> Are they meant to make entries in cron.daily when installed?
>
>Not at all.
>
>They are meant to install crontabs in cron.monthly

Strictly speaking, they install scripts in /etc/cron.monthly.

The crontabs are installed somewhere under /var; exactly where varies
with cron daemon.
-- 
Regards,

Dave  [RLU #314465]
======================================================================
dwnoon@ntlworld.com (David W Noon)
======================================================================

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