There is a major problem with cron... It will only schedule things to occur if the system is up. So if you schedule a monthly backup and the system is down for the backup, then the backup would never occur using the standard methods of cron. ONe could of course shell script around this but that seems counterproductive. Five years ago I would have suggested using a "at" job which is a function that is run by the cron daemons, but will run on or after the date scheduled. Today, if you write-up a correct XML file for Launchd you can have the regularity of cron and the start after sleep/reboot functionality of the at job. I expect that most of the applications out there that run on a schedule use the launchd process to control the starting of the process.
JOnathan the On Sep 9, 2011, at 10:46 PM, Travis Siegel wrote: > You can easily do this using a crontab entry, and a simple shell script. > Write your script to zip, tar, gzip, or some combination thereof that > compresses the folders in question, then copies the file to a location of > your choice. Then, after that, create a crontab entry that will simply > execute the script as often as you like. > Cron is part of unix, so it exists on every mac running osx, whether it's a > server version or not, so anyone can use it. > I'm actually (slightly) surprised it isn't mentioned more when folks ask > these kinds of questions. Even on the osx forums and other discussion groups > that turn up when you google for answers, cron is rarely mentioned as a > scheduling option. > Odd, but there it is. :) > Anyhow, You already have a solution, but this one is just another option for > those who are on a budget, or don't want to use funds to backup a single > file/folder/drive/some combination thereto. :) > > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> > > To reply to this post, please address your message to > [email protected] > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at > either the list's own dedicated web archive: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> > or at the public Mail Archive: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. > Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> > > The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and > worm-free! > > Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting > the list website at: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
