[H-GEN] wtmp

[Patrick Nichols]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

> > most distributions run usefull cron jobs at about 2am.....and not
> > just wtmp truncating.
>
> So, my question is... How is that issue addressed in the "Linux on the
home
> user's desktop" camp? What housekeeping tasks are normally scheduled for
> overnight execution when most home users' computers won't be powered on?
Are
> there any essential tasks that the home user should take steps to ensure
> they get run periodically? Reschedule? Execute manually?

There are cron replacements which will do cron jobs after so much cumulative
uptime.  In my debian (slink) packages list there is anacron:

anacron - a cron-like program that doesn't go by time

Anacron (like `anac(h)ronistic') is a periodic command scheduler.  It
executes commands at intervals specified in days.  Unlike cron, it does not
assume that the system is running continuously.  It can therefore be used to
control the execution of daily, weekly and monthly jobs (or anything with a
period of n days), on systems that don't run 24 hours a day.  When installed
and configured properly, Anacron will make sure that the commands are run at
the specified intervals as closely as machine-uptime permits.

This package is pre-configured to execute the daily jobs of the Debian
system. You should install this program if your system isn't powered on 24
hours a day to make sure the maintenance jobs of other Debian packages are
executed each day.

This may be just what the doctor ordered?

-pat





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