Hello Dan, I patched crontab.5 to take your advice in count.
Just hoping that no other purist would notify me that lining up columns
can be done with spaces rather that with zeroes.
I uploaded release 3.0pl1-182 right now.
Best regards, Georges.
Dan Jacobson a écrit :
> >>>>> "GK" == Georges Khaznadar <georges.khazna...@free.fr> writes:
> GK> Hello Dan,
>
> GK> I would like to get more information about your intent, for this bug
> GK> report.
>
> Looking at the crontab(5) man page,
> everything lines up very pretty:
>
>
> 17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
> 25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.daily )
> 47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.weekly )
> 52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.monthly )
>
> But that is because the author picked 6 hours for each.
>
> Let's see what would happen otherwise:
> 17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
> 25 16 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.daily )
> 47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.weekly )
> 52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.monthly )
> Oh darn, that looks ugly.
>
> The question that crosses users minds is: "Can I rewrite it
> 17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
> 25 16 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.daily )
> 47 06 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.weekly )
> 52 06 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.monthly )
> or will that be taken as octal (even if octal 6 is just 6), or illegal?
> Please don't force me to test to find the answer."
>
> I'm just saying the man page needs to state clearly what will happen.
>
> Sure, one could just add spaces instead of zeros to make the columns
> line up. But that would just be avoiding the issue.
>
> GK> Should leading zeroes be supported for the sake of making columns line
> GK> up, or should leading zeroes be used to introduce octal constants, in
> GK> your opinion?
>
> Nobody wants octal. I'm just trying to make columns line up.
>
> GK> As far as I understand the code of the file entry.c, numbers are parsed
> GK> by the function atoi:
> GK> -------------8<- file entry.c's excerpt --
> GK> if (all_digits) {
> GK> *numptr = atoi(temp);
> GK> return ch;
> GK> }
> GK> -------------8<---------------------------
>
> GK> ... which means that numbers prefixed by zeroes are considered as
> GK> decimal.
>
> OK that's great. Please mention so on crontab(5). Thanks.
>
> In fact perhaps add an example saying one can use spaces and zeros to make the
> columns line up:
>
> 25 16 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.daily )
> 47 06 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.weekly )
> 52 4 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
> --report /etc/cron.monthly )
--
Georges KHAZNADAR et Jocelyne FOURNIER
22 rue des mouettes, 59240 Dunkerque France.
Téléphone +33 (0)3 28 29 17 70
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