What Ramon correctly explained to you, if you want a simple cron job, say which runs every week, then copy your perl script in the directory /etc/cron.weekly.
So you do: $> cp /my/sexy/antivirus/script /etc/cron.weekly and then leave linux do the job. Simple as that. Ah...and just to know the meaning of plonk: plonk v. & n. & adv. Variant of plunk. plunk v. plunked, also plonked plunk*ing, plonk*ing plunks, plonks v. tr. To throw or place heavily or abruptly: plunked the money down on the counter. To strum or pluck (a stringed instrument). In terms of the previous post, I must presume that it means "put the script in the cront.weekly directory. HTH Regards, James. -- ___ __ | \ \ /| ___|_ | Linux user #324517 | _ \ | \/ | _| / james.myweblog.com |__|_/ _\_|_||_| ___|___| .:. aka MadviP .:. >>From: Ramon Casha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Reply-To: Malta Linux User Group - general list <[email protected]> >>To: Malta Linux User Group - general list <[email protected]> >>Subject: Re: [LINUX.ORG.MT] Crontab Creation >>Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 14:26:18 +0200 >> >>1. Create a shell script which updates your virus definitions. Test it >>to make sure it works. >> > > A Perl Script that performs the required operation exists, I ran it and it > works fine. > >>2. Check if you have a directory called /etc/cron.weekly. If you do, >>then the easiest way to add a weekly job is to plonk the shell script >>from #1 in that directory. There's also cron.monthly, cron.daily etc. >>depending how frequent you want it. > > The directories exist as specified. There is also cron.daily and cron.d > (what does the latter do?) > > How do I plonk the script from #1 in that directory, and what is plonking? > >> >>that's all... unless you want more precise control: >> > > I must be srewing something up because it doesn't seem that simple. > >>3. If you want more precise control, for instance specifying exactly >>which day of the month or week you want it to run in, create a cron >>entry. To do this, login as whichever user has permissions to update the >>virus database (probably root), then type "crontab -e". If this is the >>first time you're running it, it will create the crontab file. In this >>file, add a single line: >>0 8 * * * /usr/bin/update-viruses >>In the above line, I'm assuming that the shell-script to update the >>viruses is called /usr/bin/update-viruses. Change it to your >>virus-updating script. >>The first part consists of the minutes, hours, day-of-month, month and >>day-of-week. So, in the above line I'm telling it to execute the script >>at 8 am (minutes=0, hours=8) of any day, month or weekday. To make it >>run only on the first of each month at midnight, do the following: >>0 0 1 * * /usr/bin/update-viruses >>...and to run at 8.30pm every saturday, do this: >>30 20 * * 6 /usr/bin/update-viruses >> >>Whatever you do, make sure you specify the first field (minutes) to some >>value, or it will run every minute! >> > > The above explanation I understood well. I have a question, do I have to > change the directory to the cron.weekly directory in the console if I want > to create a weekly operation? > > Also, when I ran crontab -e (in the console as root) all I got was a > screen > with ~ on all lines except the few at the bottom of the screen where I got > some details. I will try inputting the details you gave me again according > to what I need and want, but if you have seen this screen and now what I > have to do, it would be great if you told me exactly what to do. Thanks as > always, always of great help. > > Regards, > Edric. > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus > > _______________________________________________ > MLUG-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailserv.megabyte.net/mailman/listinfo/mlug-list >

