Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004, Joshua Tinnin wrote: man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) I'm not sure what you mean ... If you're wondering, I'm using the main crontab file (/etc/crontab), as right now there's no need for me to use multiple ones. Just an aside, but a rather important one: /etc/crontab is the *system* crontab and shouldn't have your jobs in it. It may in fact be this issue that is causing the problem, but I've not looked into it enough to say unequivocally... I don't think this is true. For one thing, as suggested, directing output of cvsup to /dev/null worked, and now my cron job is working. Another is that neither the handbook nor the /etc/crontab file itself warn about editing it. In fact, the handbook section 11.6 says, Important: You must not use the procedure described here to edit/install the system crontab. Simply use your favorite editor: the cron utility will notice that the file has changed and immediately begin using the updated version. This is what I did. I didn't use the crontab command to edit/install it, I just used an editor. Since your job needs root privileges, you should put this in root's crontab, either by su'ing to root and running crontab -e at the prompt, or if you have sudo installed, sudo crontab -e will get you there. Unlike the system crontab, user crontabs, including root's, are under /var/cron; the file format is slightly different, and misuse of the system crontab for regular jobs is the cause of several FAQ posts we see here every few months or so; one of these goes something like, why do I get an email from cron saying it can't complete my job, unknown user, etc. ?? Again, I see nothing in the documentation warning against editing the system crontab file, only that it can't be installed/edited with the crontab command. The main danger in using /etc/crontab is that it can easily be wiped out during system updates, while user crontabs will not be affected. /etc/crontab does also use a slightly different format from user crontabs, which you need to be aware of if transferring entries between them. Cheers, Viktor ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 04:04 pm, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 08:28 am, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Unlike the system crontab, user crontabs, including root's, are under /var/cron; the file format is slightly different, and misuse of the system crontab for regular jobs is the cause of several FAQ posts we see here every few months or so; one of these goes something like, why do I get an email from cron saying it can't complete my job, unknown user, etc. ?? Again, I see nothing in the documentation warning against editing the system crontab file, only that it can't be installed/edited with the crontab command. - jt Well, you *can* do it that way ... but I wouldn't. No flub up of mine when running mergemaster is going to touch /var/cron/tabs/root; OTOH, if I put my script calls in /etc/crontab ... OK, what you said makes much more sense now. See, I'm the kind of person who has to know *exactly* why I shouldn't put my hand in the burning fire, or if not I just might do it ;) My point was that /etc/crontab is there for the machine, and per-user crontabs are there for the users --- and that includes root, so why not use it for what it's for? Of course, one of the nice things about BSD, if you know how and why, you can do it any way you like, almost... Yes, although I do plan on upgrading to 5.3 (from 5.2.1) once it goes to STABLE, so it's probably best if I put this cron job in the primary user's crontab file. - jt ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: crontab question involving cvsup
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joshua Tinnin Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 10:07 AM To: FreeBSD-questions Subject: crontab question involving cvsup OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? - jt Hi, I'll suggest you to use /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -uU instead of /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It works perfect with me :) Regards, Ivailo Tanusheff ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
First of all, you need to read the manual page for cvsup. It is clearly stated that the option -L shows the amount of verbosity cvsup maintains. If you are running it from inside a script, then either you have to reduce the verbosity to 1 ie, the command will be cvsup -g -L 1 supfile OR redirect the output to some file (if you want to look into it later) or to /dev/null to discard it. Secondly, You can always set up multiple crontabs. But since you are using (ie doo only if prev was successful), that would works if the output of cvsup is properly dealt with. Regards S. On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700, Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? - jt ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Subhro Sankha Kar School of Information Technology Block AQ-13/1 Sector V ZIP 700091 India ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) what you might want to do, is simply write a shell script and feed that into your crontab. in case you're not sure how to make a script, it is very simple and google will return many tutorials. in a nutshell, you put the commands you want into a file, make that file executable (chmod), and away you go. the first line of a shell script has an obligatory format and invokes the shell that will be used. #!/bin/sh the leading # is required /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /foo/path/to/your/ports-supfile; # comments are allowed portindex; exit note: you might also prefer to end commands with rather than ; i'm new to scripting myself so please forgive my feeble explanation. about the commands which you are planning to include, why the 'portsdb -u'? is that not doing essentially the same work as 'portindex' ? (http://www.freshports.org/sysutils/portindex/) anyhow. hope this helps. cheers, epi ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:19 am, Subhro Kar [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: First of all, you need to read the manual page for cvsup. It is clearly stated that the option -L shows the amount of verbosity cvsup maintains. If you are running it from inside a script, then either you have to reduce the verbosity to 1 ie, the command will be cvsup -g -L 1 supfile OR redirect the output to some file (if you want to look into it later) or to /dev/null to discard it. Yes, I've read the cvsup man page, but hadn't considered that verbosity might cause a failure if it's not directed. I think that might have been my problem. I had previously been directing output to a file, but not recently. Secondly, You can always set up multiple crontabs. But since you are using (ie doo only if prev was successful), that would works if the output of cvsup is properly dealt with. Well, again I know cvsup is working, but I think the verbosity might be a problem in executing the next command; i.e., I think since it can't direct output, it does run cvsup but fails in the verbosity aspect, and therefore no more commands are executed after. In any event, I think I'll try it with cvsup -g -L 2 supfile /dev/null 21 (of course with the proper paths) and see what happens, and alternately try to direct output to a file the next time, as I'd like to have a log. I'll probably also change it to portsdb -Uu as Ivailo suggested, as I don't need to have it run quickly when it's a daily job done when I'm sleeping. Thanks for the help. - jt Regards S. On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700, Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? - jt ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) I'm not sure what you mean ... If you're wondering, I'm using the main crontab file (/etc/crontab), as right now there's no need for me to use multiple ones. what you might want to do, is simply write a shell script and feed that into your crontab. in case you're not sure how to make a script, it is very simple and google will return many tutorials. I had considered this, and eventually would like to do so, as I'd like to add the output of fastest_cvsup to the server listed in the supfile. in a nutshell, you put the commands you want into a file, make that file executable (chmod), and away you go. the first line of a shell script has an obligatory format and invokes the shell that will be used. #!/bin/sh the leading # is required /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /foo/path/to/your/ports-supfile; # comments are allowed portindex; exit Is verbosity of -L 2 allowed in a script without output? IOW, should that first line be: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /path/to/supfile /dev/null 21; Or does it matter if the output has nowhere to go? note: you might also prefer to end commands with rather than ; i'm new to scripting myself so please forgive my feeble explanation. I'm pretty new to scripting as well. Does ; allow the next line to run, even if the previous one didn't, as opposed to which would only allow the next line to run if the previous one was successful? (This would be similar to how a one-line command works outside a script.) about the commands which you are planning to include, why the 'portsdb -u'? is that not doing essentially the same work as 'portindex' ? (http://www.freshports.org/sysutils/portindex/) No, portindex doesn't update the database. The command portsdb -U generates an INDEX, which is what portindex does (although portindex does it faster), while portsdb -u generates the INDEX.db from the ports INDEX file. However, the database is generated automatically if need be when it's looked up, so it's not necessary - man portsdb mentions this - but I like to have my ducks in a row, so to speak ;) anyhow. hope this helps. Yes, it has me thinking I should probably start testing out a script, but it will include a bit more than just cvsup'ping, updating the INDEX and database. Thanks. - jt ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 01:09 am, Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) I'm not sure what you mean ... If you're wondering, I'm using the main crontab file (/etc/crontab), as right now there's no need for me to use multiple ones. what you might want to do, is simply write a shell script and feed that into your crontab. in case you're not sure how to make a script, it is very simple and google will return many tutorials. I had considered this, and eventually would like to do so, as I'd like to add the output of fastest_cvsup to the server listed in the supfile. in a nutshell, you put the commands you want into a file, make that file executable (chmod), and away you go. the first line of a shell script has an obligatory format and invokes the shell that will be used. #!/bin/sh the leading # is required /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /foo/path/to/your/ports-supfile; # comments are allowed portindex; exit Is verbosity of -L 2 allowed in a script without output? IOW, should that first line be: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /path/to/supfile /dev/null 21; Or does it matter if the output has nowhere to go? note: you might also prefer to end commands with rather than ; i'm new to scripting myself so please forgive my feeble explanation. I'm pretty new to scripting as well. Does ; allow the next line to run, even if the previous one didn't, as opposed to which would only allow the next line to run if the previous one was successful? (This would be similar to how a one-line command works outside a script.) about the commands which you are planning to include, why the 'portsdb -u'? is that not doing essentially the same work as 'portindex' ? (http://www.freshports.org/sysutils/portindex/) No, portindex doesn't update the database. The command portsdb -U generates an INDEX, which is what portindex does (although portindex does it faster), while portsdb -u generates the INDEX.db from the ports INDEX file. However, the database is generated automatically if need be when it's looked up, so it's not necessary - man portsdb mentions this - but I like to have my ducks in a row, so to speak ;) anyhow. hope this helps. Yes, it has me thinking I should probably start testing out a script, but it will include a bit more than just cvsup'ping, updating the INDEX and database. Thanks. This is my cron job. I don't test for completion because of the multiple commands I execute. It doesn't fail very often. It also include the usage of portindex and portsdb. ruby# m uports #! /bin/sh export PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin cd /root/cvsup cvsup -g -L 2 ports-supfile 21 | tee /var/log/build/ports_cvsup.log cd /var/log/build # Now convert the log to html` cvsuplog ports_cvsup.log ports-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.html # Now update the index pages. cd /usr/ports # # make bzip2 backup and save 4 old ones for the days when make index # is broken # rm INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.2.bz2 INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.1.bz2 INDEX.2.bz2 mv INDEX.0.bz2 INDEX.1.bz2 bzip2 -c INDEX INDEX.0.bz2 # # get new INDEX #make index 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log portindex 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log # #fetch www.freebsd.org/ports/INDEX #chmod 644 INDEX portsdb -u -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA http://users.owt.com/kstewart/index.html Support the Bison at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) I'm not sure what you mean ... If you're wondering, I'm using the main crontab file (/etc/crontab), as right now there's no need for me to use multiple ones. Just an aside, but a rather important one: /etc/crontab is the *system* crontab and shouldn't have your jobs in it. It may in fact be this issue that is causing the problem, but I've not looked into it enough to say unequivocally... Since your job needs root privileges, you should put this in root's crontab, either by su'ing to root and running crontab -e at the prompt, or if you have sudo installed, sudo crontab -e will get you there. Unlike the system crontab, user crontabs, including root's, are under /var/cron; the file format is slightly different, and misuse of the system crontab for regular jobs is the cause of several FAQ posts we see here every few months or so; one of these goes something like, why do I get an email from cron saying it can't complete my job, unknown user, etc. ?? Kevin Kinsey DaleCo, S.P. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
Here is my setup which works: crontab -e yeilds 0 1 * * * /bin/sh /root/bin/port.sh 21 | mail root port.sh contains: #!/bin/sh /usr/local/bin/cvsup /etc/ports-supfile /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -Uu /usr/local/sbin/portversion -v | /usr/bin/grep then this gets mailed to me everyday with the outcome and the ports that need updating. Lucas Holt [EMAIL PROTECTED] FoolishGames.com (Jewel Fan Site) JustJournal.com (Free blogging) ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
--On Thursday, August 26, 2004 12:07:26 AM -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? Just out of curiosity, why would you use cron rather than /etc/periodic/daily? Paul Schmehl ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Adjunct Information Security Officer The University of Texas at Dallas AVIEN Founding Member http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 11:48:53AM -0400, Lucas Holt wrote: Here is my setup which works: crontab -e yeilds 0 1 * * * /bin/sh /root/bin/port.sh 21 | mail root port.sh contains: #!/bin/sh /usr/local/bin/cvsup /etc/ports-supfile /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -Uu /usr/local/sbin/portversion -v | /usr/bin/grep portversion -vl would give the same results. Also, you might want to give portindex a try, which will do the same part as portsdb -U, but noticeably faster. -Radek ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
Paul Schmehl said: Just out of curiosity, why would you use cron rather than /etc/periodic/daily? If you want something to run at a different time of day than the daily scripts. You could modify /etc/crontab and move the time around, but the rest of the scripts still follow and most of us have been trained to never monkey with files in /etc except a few. Also, typing 'crontab -e' is extremely simple when all you have to do is run a single command. -- Charles Ulrich System Administrator Ideal Solution - http://www.idealso.com ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 08:28 am, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) I'm not sure what you mean ... If you're wondering, I'm using the main crontab file (/etc/crontab), as right now there's no need for me to use multiple ones. Just an aside, but a rather important one: /etc/crontab is the *system* crontab and shouldn't have your jobs in it. It may in fact be this issue that is causing the problem, but I've not looked into it enough to say unequivocally... I don't think this is true. For one thing, as suggested, directing output of cvsup to /dev/null worked, and now my cron job is working. Another is that neither the handbook nor the /etc/crontab file itself warn about editing it. In fact, the handbook section 11.6 says, Important: You must not use the procedure described here to edit/install the system crontab. Simply use your favorite editor: the cron utility will notice that the file has changed and immediately begin using the updated version. This is what I did. I didn't use the crontab command to edit/install it, I just used an editor. Since your job needs root privileges, you should put this in root's crontab, either by su'ing to root and running crontab -e at the prompt, or if you have sudo installed, sudo crontab -e will get you there. Unlike the system crontab, user crontabs, including root's, are under /var/cron; the file format is slightly different, and misuse of the system crontab for regular jobs is the cause of several FAQ posts we see here every few months or so; one of these goes something like, why do I get an email from cron saying it can't complete my job, unknown user, etc. ?? Again, I see nothing in the documentation warning against editing the system crontab file, only that it can't be installed/edited with the crontab command. - jt ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 02:28 am, kstewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 01:09 am, Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile /usr/local/bin/portindex /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not working for some other reason? man cron gives: crontab [-u user] file 'file' being the important part, methinks. ;) I'm not sure what you mean ... If you're wondering, I'm using the main crontab file (/etc/crontab), as right now there's no need for me to use multiple ones. what you might want to do, is simply write a shell script and feed that into your crontab. in case you're not sure how to make a script, it is very simple and google will return many tutorials. I had considered this, and eventually would like to do so, as I'd like to add the output of fastest_cvsup to the server listed in the supfile. in a nutshell, you put the commands you want into a file, make that file executable (chmod), and away you go. the first line of a shell script has an obligatory format and invokes the shell that will be used. #!/bin/sh the leading # is required /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /foo/path/to/your/ports-supfile; # comments are allowed portindex; exit Is verbosity of -L 2 allowed in a script without output? IOW, should that first line be: /usr/local/bin/cvsup -L 2 /path/to/supfile /dev/null 21; Or does it matter if the output has nowhere to go? note: you might also prefer to end commands with rather than ; i'm new to scripting myself so please forgive my feeble explanation. I'm pretty new to scripting as well. Does ; allow the next line to run, even if the previous one didn't, as opposed to which would only allow the next line to run if the previous one was successful? (This would be similar to how a one-line command works outside a script.) about the commands which you are planning to include, why the 'portsdb -u'? is that not doing essentially the same work as 'portindex' ? (http://www.freshports.org/sysutils/portindex/) No, portindex doesn't update the database. The command portsdb -U generates an INDEX, which is what portindex does (although portindex does it faster), while portsdb -u generates the INDEX.db from the ports INDEX file. However, the database is generated automatically if need be when it's looked up, so it's not necessary - man portsdb mentions this - but I like to have my ducks in a row, so to speak ;) anyhow. hope this helps. Yes, it has me thinking I should probably start testing out a script, but it will include a bit more than just cvsup'ping, updating the INDEX and database. Thanks. This is my cron job. I don't test for completion because of the multiple commands I execute. It doesn't fail very often. It also include the usage of portindex and portsdb. ruby# m uports #! /bin/sh export PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/us r/X11R6/bin:/root/bin cd /root/cvsup cvsup -g -L 2 ports-supfile 21 | tee /var/log/build/ports_cvsup.log cd /var/log/build # Now convert the log to html` cvsuplog ports_cvsup.log ports-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.html # Now update the index pages. cd /usr/ports # # make bzip2 backup and save 4 old ones for the days when make index # is broken # rm INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.2.bz2 INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.1.bz2 INDEX.2.bz2 mv INDEX.0.bz2 INDEX.1.bz2 bzip2 -c INDEX INDEX.0.bz2 # # get new INDEX #make index 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log portindex 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log # #fetch www.freebsd.org/ports/INDEX #chmod 644 INDEX portsdb -u Excellent. Thanks so much for sending this, as this is just the sort of thing I need. I'll
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thursday 26 August 2004 01:15 pm, Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 02:28 am, kstewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 01:09 am, Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect. I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily. I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately this is what I have in my crontab file: snip cd /usr/ports # # make bzip2 backup and save 4 old ones for the days when make index # is broken # rm INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.2.bz2 INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.1.bz2 INDEX.2.bz2 mv INDEX.0.bz2 INDEX.1.bz2 bzip2 -c INDEX INDEX.0.bz2 # # get new INDEX #make index 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log portindex 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log # #fetch www.freebsd.org/ports/INDEX #chmod 644 INDEX portsdb -u Excellent. Thanks so much for sending this, as this is just the sort of thing I need. I'll work on it a bit tonight to customize it for my system. I'm glad you posted this, as in searching the archives I noticed you've posted it before, but it's changed since the last time. After I sent it, I noticed that in the past I had used fetch. I would now use make fetchindex instead. With fetchindex, you don't have to modify the permissions on INDEX to use it as a user. When index builds are dying, it is a kind of moot point because I would resort to one of my backed up versions and not fetch from FreeBSD anyway. The output from a cron job can be pretty verbose at times and it all ends up as an email. I typically run uports at 4am and 4pm. My cvsup mirror is updated on the odd hours. Until I started using portindex, I used a job that just did the cvsup section and created the html. I would fetch a local copy of INDEX and INDEX.db from my test machine. That way only one machine spent the time creating INDEX. At this point, the test machine is using xorg-* and I have dropped my normal machine back to using XFree86. So, I have to create INDEX on both machines. There is a situation when xorg and KDE loses track of what keyboard and layout you are using. KDE switched into using some form of Greek. At least the letters appear to be from the Greek alphabet :). Kent -- Kent Stewart Richland, WA http://users.owt.com/kstewart/index.html Support the Bison at http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:48:19 -0700 kstewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 01:15 pm, Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 02:28 am, kstewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 01:09 am, Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 12:42 am, epilogue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:07:26 -0700 Joshua Tinnin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip cd /usr/ports # # make bzip2 backup and save 4 old ones for the days when make index# is broken # rm INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.2.bz2 INDEX.3.bz2 mv INDEX.1.bz2 INDEX.2.bz2 mv INDEX.0.bz2 INDEX.1.bz2 bzip2 -c INDEX INDEX.0.bz2 # # get new INDEX #make index 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log portindex 21 | tee /var/log/build/make-index-`date +%Y%m%d-%H%M`.log # #fetch www.freebsd.org/ports/INDEX #chmod 644 INDEX portsdb -u I'm using the same approach, although the script is different and (on the master machine) it also parse the cvsup output for distinfo and does a make fech and make checksum in the ports, plus saves the failed fetch ports to retry to re-fetch them. One thing you might want to add is -l flag to cvsup so if the cvsup process fails (e.g. rejected by server: Access limit .. ) you don't end up with 2 cvsup running in the same time. [ ... ] The output from a cron job can be pretty verbose at times and it all ends up as an email. I typically run uports at 4am and 4pm. My cvsup mirror is updated on the odd hours. Until I started using portindex, I used a job that just did the cvsup section and created the html. I would fetch a local copy of INDEX and INDEX.db from my test machine. That way only one machine spent the time creating INDEX. At this point, the test machine is using xorg-* and I have dropped my normal machine back to using XFree86. So, I have to create INDEX on both machines. There is a situation when xorg and KDE loses track of what keyboard and layout you are using. KDE switched into using some form of Greek. At least the letters appear to be from the Greek alphabet :). I usually find it better to build index on all machines, since they have different ports installed and *_DEPENDS may differ largely; this make portversion happy. -- IOnut Unregistered ;) FreeBSD user ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question involving cvsup
Joshua Tinnin wrote: On Thursday 26 August 2004 08:28 am, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Unlike the system crontab, user crontabs, including root's, are under /var/cron; the file format is slightly different, and misuse of the system crontab for regular jobs is the cause of several FAQ posts we see here every few months or so; one of these goes something like, why do I get an email from cron saying it can't complete my job, unknown user, etc. ?? Again, I see nothing in the documentation warning against editing the system crontab file, only that it can't be installed/edited with the crontab command. - jt Well, you *can* do it that way ... but I wouldn't. No flub up of mine when running mergemaster is going to touch /var/cron/tabs/root; OTOH, if I put my script calls in /etc/crontab ... My point was that /etc/crontab is there for the machine, and per-user crontabs are there for the users --- and that includes root, so why not use it for what it's for? Of course, one of the nice things about BSD, if you know how and why, you can do it any way you like, almost... H.A.N.D., KDK ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: crontab question
Greetings, I am running 5.1-release. I created the file /var/cron/tabs/root . It is owner root, group wheel. permissions are -rw--- I have the following entry in the file root 0 22 2-31 * * /usr/local/bin/rsync -av /dept2/Marketing/ /data/Marketing 21 /r oot/rsync.log Of course the line above is all on one line. Well, this command did not run last night. No /root/rsync.log file was created. No email was generated. Zip. what did I screw up to prevent cron from running the command ? As far as I know, you should never manually create a crontab file. Normal users should just type crontab -e on a command line for scheduling. The same might apply to root, never tried personally. One sure fire way to get it working is to add your above line to /etc/crontab with root in the user column. This is not normally recommanded, so you might try doing crontab -e as root first. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question
Greetings, I am running 5.1-release. I created the file /var/cron/tabs/root . It is owner root, group wheel. permissions are -rw--- I have the following entry in the file root 0 22 2-31 * * /usr/local/bin/rsync -av /dept2/Marketing/ /data/Marketing 21 /r oot/rsync.log Of course the line above is all on one line. Well, this command did not run last night. No /root/rsync.log file was created. No email was generated. Zip. what did I screw up to prevent cron from running the command ? You did it by hand instead of using the more automated method. Although you got the ownership/permissions correct, I bet you didn't restart the cron daemon (which is required so that it sees the newly created crontab.) You should really use crontab -e to edit/create crontab files. It will look after ownership/permissions automatically, as well as kicking the cron daemon. -- Matt Emmreton ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Crontab question
On Thu, Feb 12, 2004 at 04:06:56PM -0600, Darryl Hoar wrote: Greetings, I am running 5.1-release. I have installed rsync from ports, and want to use it to archive. I want to add an entry to cron so it runs nightly. I didn't quite understand the man page when it came to arguments to the command you are running. ie 0 0 1 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsync -av /working/ /backup/working I also want the output of the rsync command to go to a named file. Any help greatly appreciated. -Darryl Without consideration to the syntax of rsync, a line much like the one you have should work. For example: 0 1 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsync -av /dir /backup/dir 21 /root/rsync.log This should run the specified command at 1AM every day of every week. Nathan -- gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys D8527E49 pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: crontab question...
* Xpression: Hi guys, I was wondering if I have three script files on crontab and all they are executed at the same hour how it's function ??? AFAICT, cron forks a new process for each job scheduled at the same time. Cheers, -- Jean-Baptiste Quenot http://caraldi.com/jbq/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: crontab question...
On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 13:16:29 -0500 Xpression [EMAIL PROTECTED] probably wrote: Hi guys, I was wondering if I have three script files on crontab and all they are executed at the same hour how it's function ??? I mean: # #minutehourmdaymonthwdaywhocommand # 00*** root /path/one/script1 00*** root /path/two/script2 00*** root /path/three/script3 they are executed at the same time or in order ??? thank Generally, you shouldn't depend on that. If you want the scripts to be executed in a particular order, write a wrapper script that says something like /path/one/script1 /path/two/script2 /path/three/script3 and add it to the crontab. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- DoubleF All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are Socrates. -- Woody Allen pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: crontab question...
At 11:57 AM 11.1.2003 +0100, Jean-Baptiste Quenot wrote: * Xpression: Hi guys, I was wondering if I have three script files on crontab and all they are executed at the same hour how it's function ??? AFAICT, cron forks a new process for each job scheduled at the same time. Cheers, -- Jean-Baptiste Quenot Indeed, if you run several cron jobs at the same time and then look at ps -ax you'll see several crons running. That's in addition to /usr/sbin/cron which is loaded. Best regards, Jack L. Stone, Administrator Sage American http://www.sage-american.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
