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= Requesting cron permissions = Use [https://members.hcoop.net/portal/sec the security settings page] of the portal to request permission to use cron. You won't be able to create a crontab before submitting a request and having it approved. |
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This page describes the basic use of cron on HCoop systems.
Prerequisites
It is very important that you read the [:MemberManual/RunningUnattendedCommands:Running Unattended Commands page] to understand the general idea of how to run unattended commands on Mire.
Requesting cron permissions
Use [https://members.hcoop.net/portal/sec the security settings page] of the portal to request permission to use cron. You won't be able to create a crontab before submitting a request and having it approved.
Making a cron configuration file
Cron needs a special configuration file to tell it how to operate. It is suggested that this file be called ~/.crontab, though it can have any name.
For an explanation of the format of this file, run:
man 5 crontab
Activating your cron configuration
Once you are satisfied with your setup, run the following command to activate your changes, assuming that your configuration file is called ~/.crontab:
crontab ~/.crontab
Examples
One convention for making scripts to run commands in their own PAG, as specified by the [:MemberManual/RunningUnattendedCommands:Running Unattended Commands page], is to create the ~/scripts directory, and place your scripts there. Then, make a cron configuration file that looks something like this.
PATH=/afs/hcoop.net/common/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin 09 0 * * 0 run-in-pagsh --fg ~/scripts/clean-mail 11 0 * * 0 run-in-pagsh --fg ~/scripts/remove-tmp 12 0 * * 0 run-in-pagsh --fg ~/scripts/weekly-comment-check */10 * * * * run-in-pagsh --fg ~/scripts/make-git-projects
The PATH line is needed so that you have access to run-in-pagsh. Make sure you don't try to reference any other environment variables like $HOME, because cron will not expand them properly.
The first cron command runs something 9 minutes after midnight (aka the "0th" hour), every day of the month, every month, provided that it is Sunday (aka the "0th" day of the week). In short: run something at 12:09 every Sunday.
The second and third commands are similar.
The fourth command runs something every 10 minutes.