Package: cron Version: 3.0pl1-127+deb8u1 Severity: normal Dear Maintainer,
Cron has a very old bug about the way it processes asterisks in dom and dow fields. The bug is confimed by Paul Vixie and should not be fixed. However, it needs to be documented in crontab (5). A patch is attached. Details: https://treats.wdt.io/cron-bug.html -- Package-specific info: --- EDITOR: --- /usr/bin/editor: /bin/nano --- /usr/bin/crontab: -rwxr-sr-x 1 root crontab 36008 Jun 11 2015 /usr/bin/crontab --- /var/spool/cron: drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Oct 5 15:17 /var/spool/cron --- /var/spool/cron/crontabs: drwx-wx--T 2 root crontab 4096 Jun 11 2015 /var/spool/cron/crontabs --- /etc/cron.d: drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 5 15:14 /etc/cron.d --- /etc/cron.daily: drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 5 15:18 /etc/cron.daily --- /etc/cron.hourly: drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 5 15:14 /etc/cron.hourly --- /etc/cron.monthly: drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 5 15:14 /etc/cron.monthly --- /etc/cron.weekly: drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 5 15:14 /etc/cron.weekly *** /tmp/crontab.5.patch --- crontab.5.orig 2016-10-12 23:15:33.000000000 -0600 +++ crontab.5 2016-10-12 23:20:06.000000000 -0600 @@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ .PP Note: The day of a command's execution can be specified by two fields \(em day of month, and day of week. If both fields are -restricted (i.e., aren't *), the command will be run when +restricted (i.e., don't start with *), the command will be run when .I either field matches the current time. For example, .br @@ -259,7 +259,9 @@ # run at 10 pm on weekdays, annoy Joe 0 22 * * 1-5 mail \-s "It's 10pm" joe%Joe,%%Where are your kids?% 23 0-23/2 * * * echo "run 23 minutes after midn, 2am, 4am ..., everyday" -5 4 * * sun echo "run at 5 after 4 every sunday" +5 4 * * sun echo "run at 5 after 4 every Sunday" +0 */4 1 * mon echo "run every 4th hour on the 1st and on every Monday" +0 0 */2 * sun echo "run at midn on every Sunday that's an uneven date" # Run on every second Saturday of the month 0 4 8-14 * * test $(date +\\%u) \-eq 6 && echo "2nd Saturday" .fi @@ -320,6 +322,15 @@ this will affect only the commands executed in the crontab, not the execution of the crontab tasks themselves. +POSIX specifies that the day of month and the day of week fields both need to +match the current time if either of them +.I is +a *. However, this implementation only checks if the +.I first character +is a *. This is why "0 0 */2 * sun" runs every Sunday that's an +uneven date while the POSIX standard would have it run every Sunday and on +every uneven date. + The .I crontab syntax does not make it possible to define all possible periods one could @@ -354,4 +365,5 @@ Paul Vixie <p...@vix.com> is the author of .I cron and original creator of this manual page. This page has also been modified for -Debian by Steve Greenland, Javier Fernandez-Sanguino and Christian Kastner. \ No newline at end of file +Debian by Steve Greenland, Javier Fernandez-Sanguino, Christian Kastner and +Christian Pekeler. \ No newline at end of file -- System Information: Debian Release: 8.6 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages cron depends on: ii adduser 3.113+nmu3 ii debianutils 4.4+b1 ii dpkg 1.17.27 ii init-system-helpers 1.22 ii libc6 2.19-18+deb8u6 ii libpam-runtime 1.1.8-3.1+deb8u1 ii libpam0g 1.1.8-3.1+deb8u1+b1 ii libselinux1 2.3-2 ii lsb-base 4.1+Debian13+nmu1 Versions of packages cron recommends: ii exim4 4.84.2-2+deb8u1 ii exim4-daemon-light [mail-transport-agent] 4.84.2-2+deb8u1 Versions of packages cron suggests: pn anacron <none> pn checksecurity <none> ii logrotate 3.8.7-1+b1 Versions of packages cron is related to: pn libnss-ldap <none> pn libnss-ldapd <none> pn libpam-ldap <none> pn libpam-mount <none> pn nis <none> pn nscd <none> -- no debconf information
