[arch-dev-public] Replacing dcron
We've had a few bugs regarding the issue of our crappy default cron. http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16085 http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12910 The consensus among the people who have commented is that fcron is the best bet here. So let's do this. Would someone like to volunteer to boot our our old crusty dcron in favor of fcron? On a related note: dcron does not support /etc/cron.d/ and it irritates me to no end. fcron can do this, correct? If not, we should remove the cron.d dir from the package
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin@gmail.com> wrote:
We've had a few bugs regarding the issue of our crappy default cron.
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16085
On a related note: dcron does not support /etc/cron.d/ and it irritates me to no end. fcron can do this, correct? If not, we should remove the cron.d dir from the package
From 16085 : Of course fcron has the same "problem" of not handling /etc/cron*, but
this can usually be worked around by a simple script which runs/imports/etc. the relevant files. But fcron is french, so it MUST be good. ahahah Go go french cron !
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 2:13 PM, Xavier <shiningxc@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin@gmail.com> wrote:
We've had a few bugs regarding the issue of our crappy default cron.
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16085
On a related note: dcron does not support /etc/cron.d/ and it irritates me to no end. fcron can do this, correct? If not, we should remove the cron.d dir from the package
From 16085 : Of course fcron has the same "problem" of not handling /etc/cron*, but this can usually be worked around by a simple script which runs/imports/etc. the relevant files.
But fcron is french, so it MUST be good. ahahah Go go french cron !
Oui oui! C'est chouette!
2009/9/22, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin@gmail.com>:
Oui oui! C'est chouette!
Oui, c'est plus facile. :-) -- Arch Linux Developer http://www.archlinux.org http://www.archlinux.it
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
We've had a few bugs regarding the issue of our crappy default cron.
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16085 http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12910
The consensus among the people who have commented is that fcron is the best bet here.
So let's do this. Would someone like to volunteer to boot our our old crusty dcron in favor of fcron?
On a related note: dcron does not support /etc/cron.d/ and it irritates me to no end. fcron can do this, correct? If not, we should remove the cron.d dir from the package
I was the first one to package the first fcron package to community (however, I did not write the original AUR PKGBUILD). I could take care of it, I don't know how to solve the cron.d problem though, have to look into that. Note that fcron has been un-updated since December 2007, but it only depends on PAM and has been working perfectly all this time for me. I don't know if the original author still maintains it at all and just had no need to update it, or if he abandoned it. We should maybe determine that. Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 2:35 PM, Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org> wrote:
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
We've had a few bugs regarding the issue of our crappy default cron.
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/16085 http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12910
The consensus among the people who have commented is that fcron is the best bet here.
So let's do this. Would someone like to volunteer to boot our our old crusty dcron in favor of fcron?
On a related note: dcron does not support /etc/cron.d/ and it irritates me to no end. fcron can do this, correct? If not, we should remove the cron.d dir from the package
I was the first one to package the first fcron package to community (however, I did not write the original AUR PKGBUILD). I could take care of it, I don't know how to solve the cron.d problem though, have to look into that.
Note that fcron has been un-updated since December 2007, but it only depends on PAM and has been working perfectly all this time for me. I don't know if the original author still maintains it at all and just had no need to update it, or if he abandoned it. We should maybe determine that.
Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
It sounds like you're a little hesitant about this. What are our options here? fcron, bcron, vixie-cron?
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
It sounds like you're a little hesitant about this. What are our options here? fcron, bcron, vixie-cron?
I wasn't planning on sounding hesitant. I only know fcron and never used vixie or bcron. fcron is very small, fcrontabs are compatible with traditional crontabs, but have an optional extended syntax that supports many advanced features. Did I mention that it is still pretty small? The only thing that one might worry about is that people might say fcron is "unmaintained" - but then I haven't seen a single bug or missing feature in the current release, so maybe this apparent lack of maintenance is a result from a lack of need for maintenance.
On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org> wrote:
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
It sounds like you're a little hesitant about this. What are our options here? fcron, bcron, vixie-cron?
I wasn't planning on sounding hesitant. I only know fcron and never used vixie or bcron. fcron is very small, fcrontabs are compatible with traditional crontabs, but have an optional extended syntax that supports many advanced features. Did I mention that it is still pretty small?
The only thing that one might worry about is that people might say fcron is "unmaintained" - but then I haven't seen a single bug or missing feature in the current release, so maybe this apparent lack of maintenance is a result from a lack of need for maintenance.
I run fcron on at least one of my boxes; I don't even know becuase it has been so worry-free. It just works and the extended syntax is nice (e.g. running things on boot). -Dan
Thomas Bächler a écrit :
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
It sounds like you're a little hesitant about this. What are our options here? fcron, bcron, vixie-cron?
I wasn't planning on sounding hesitant. I only know fcron and never used vixie or bcron. fcron is very small, fcrontabs are compatible with traditional crontabs, but have an optional extended syntax that supports many advanced features. Did I mention that it is still pretty small?
The only thing that one might worry about is that people might say fcron is "unmaintained" - but then I haven't seen a single bug or missing feature in the current release, so maybe this apparent lack of maintenance is a result from a lack of need for maintenance.
I agree. "Maintained" does not necessarily mean "there are new releases every X months". Strictly speaking it rather means that if a bug or security issue is reported to the developers, they will fix it. There is occasionally software that really is bugfree and does not require change to the code :) Examples do not abound, for sure.
Thomas Bächler wrote:
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
It sounds like you're a little hesitant about this. What are our options here? fcron, bcron, vixie-cron?
I wasn't planning on sounding hesitant. I only know fcron and never used vixie or bcron. fcron is very small, fcrontabs are compatible with traditional crontabs, but have an optional extended syntax that supports many advanced features. Did I mention that it is still pretty small?
The only thing that one might worry about is that people might say fcron is "unmaintained" - but then I haven't seen a single bug or missing feature in the current release, so maybe this apparent lack of maintenance is a result from a lack of need for maintenance.
All cron's seem to have no releases in recent years... so I doubt that can be used to choose. So features seem the way to go. For those that want a fairly good guide to the different crons, check out http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/cron-guide.xml#doc_chap2 I remember fcron from my LFS days, so I am happy using it. when a decision is not obvious, select from nostalgia. :P Allan
On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Allan McRae <allan@archlinux.org> wrote:
Thomas Bächler wrote:
Aaron Griffin schrieb:
Another suggestion was vixie-cron - personally I have been using fcron on LFS since 2001 or 2002 and later on Arch, and have been happy with it all those 8 or 9 years. Whatever we do by default, I will keep on using fcron.
It sounds like you're a little hesitant about this. What are our options here? fcron, bcron, vixie-cron?
I wasn't planning on sounding hesitant. I only know fcron and never used vixie or bcron. fcron is very small, fcrontabs are compatible with traditional crontabs, but have an optional extended syntax that supports many advanced features. Did I mention that it is still pretty small?
The only thing that one might worry about is that people might say fcron is "unmaintained" - but then I haven't seen a single bug or missing feature in the current release, so maybe this apparent lack of maintenance is a result from a lack of need for maintenance.
All cron's seem to have no releases in recent years... so I doubt that can be used to choose. So features seem the way to go. For those that want a fairly good guide to the different crons, check out http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/cron-guide.xml#doc_chap2
I remember fcron from my LFS days, so I am happy using it. when a decision is not obvious, select from nostalgia. :P
Allan
I have no objections in replacing dcron by another alternative. fcron seems to be the popular choice so far. Another advantage for fcron is that it would also replace my anacron package in community.
participants (8)
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Aaron Griffin
-
Allan McRae
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Dan McGee
-
Eric Bélanger
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Firmicus
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Giovanni Scafora
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Thomas Bächler
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Xavier