Hi Folks,

I've set up a task to happen every friday at noon (with no problems) but I was wondering without having to go through a test if anyone knew what would happen if my computer is off at that particular time. Will it upon computer boot up

1. Ignore task and simply wait until the following friday before doing the task (again if the computer is on)

OR WILL IT

2. Do the task as soon as the computer is switched.

Also will the task be performed no matter who is logged in (ie will a root task be performed while a restricted user is logged in)

Lowebb

cron assumes the PC is on 24/7 and will only run tasks at their scheduled time.

Anacron is a periodic command scheduler and is designed to run those tasks only on day intervals. Anacron is not a full time daemon and does not replace cron. It is designed for those task that need to be run on computers not running 24/7

Tasks will run in the background independent of any user that is logged in.

I'm interested in the anacron you speak of and I think I've got what it is but can I ask this. I am running FC4 and my anacrontab file has the following 3 lines

1 65 cron.daily run-parts /etc/cron.daily
7 70 cron.weekly run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
30 75 cron.monthly run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

Does this mean anacron will automatically run any jobs which have not been run using cron? If so then there is nothing I have to do to get run the tasks I have set up in cron, correct?

No, anacron will only control jobs listed in the anacrontab file.

http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/anacron.8.html

Cheers, I've looked thorugh the documentation link you sent but I still cant work out how to schedule a command to run weekly with this comand. I was lucky enough to use (kcron I think) a gui based cron and didnt have to worry about comman line.

Could you give me an example of running a weekly command at midnight as root user?

Thanks

Lowebb

You can only specify an interval of days with anacron.

[/quote]7 70 cron.weekly run-parts /etc/cron.weekly[/quote]
This will run weekly i.e every 7 days. The job will not start for 70 minutes.

With cron you can specify day, hour, minute etc.
http://www.hmug.org/man/5/crontab.php

So the comman you entered will run ever 7 days, 70 minutes from the time you entered the command? And it will run the command '/etc/cron.weekly' or 'run -parts'?

Sorry for the constant questions but I'm trying to get get the structure of the comman nailed down

Thanks

Lowebb