Scribd
Upload
27 views

Chapter4 Scheduling Future Linux Tasks

Cron is used to schedule recurring jobs on Linux systems. It allows specifying commands to run on a schedule defined by minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Common schedules can use wildcards like * or ranges. Cron configuration files include /etc/crontab for system-wide jobs and user crontabs for per-user jobs. Systemd also handles scheduling some periodic system tasks and cleaning temporary files.

Uploaded by

abdelrhmannegm79
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
27 views

Chapter4 Scheduling Future Linux Tasks

Cron is used to schedule recurring jobs on Linux systems. It allows specifying commands to run on a schedule defined by minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. Common schedules can use wildcards like * or ranges. Cron configuration files include /etc/crontab for system-wide jobs and user crontabs for per-user jobs. Systemd also handles scheduling some periodic system tasks and cleaning temporary files.

Uploaded by

abdelrhmannegm79
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Scheduling Recurring Jobs with cron:

[root@master ~]# systemctl status crond (Installed and enabled by default)


[root@master ~]# crontab -e (vi editor will be started)
#comment line (optional)
Minutes Hours Day-of-Month Month Day-of-Week Command

� * for always
� A number
� x-y for a range
� x,y for lists
� */x to indicate an i nterval of x (*/7 in the minutes column will run a job
exactly every seven minutes)
� Three-letter abbreviations can be used for both month and wee kdays.
� If the command contains an unescaped(%) that % will be treated as a newline, and
everything after the % will be fed to the command on stdin.

Ex:
0 9 2 2 * /usr/local/bin/yearly_backup
*/7 9-16 * Jul 5 echo "Chime"
58 23 * * 1-5 tar cf /root/etc.tar /etc
[root@master ~]# crontab -l (List the jobs for the current
user)
[root@master ~]# crontab -r (Remove all jobs for the current
users)
[root@master ~]# crontab -e -u abeer (Root can manage the jobs for
another user)
[root@master ~]# crontab (stdin will be used)
[root@master ~]# crontab <file_name> (Remove all jobs, and replace with
the jobs read from
<file_name>)
Note:
- If the commands run from a cron job produce any output to either stdout or stderr
that is not redirected, the crond daemon will attempt to email that output to the
user owning that job.

[root@master ~]# vim /etc/crontab (Don't touch this file)


==========================================
Scheduling System cron Jobs:
[root@master ~]# vim /etc/crontab (not recommended to be used to schedule
jobs)
[root@master ~]# ls -d /etc/cron.* (predefined jobs that run every hour,
day, week, and month)

Note:
anacron :run the task even if the machine is not work
- Make sure to make any scripts you place in these directories executable.
- The /etc/anacrontab file will make sure that important jobs will always be run,
and not skipped accidentally because the system was turned off or hibernating.
==========================================
Managing Temporary Files:
- In the past. system administrators used a tool called tmpwatch to remove old,
unused tmp files.
- In RHEL7 systemd will start systemd�tmpfiles-setup which is resposible for tmp
files.
- systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service will be started 15 minutes after systemd has
started, and then once every 24 hours afterwards.
- Files will be considered unused if timestamps(atime, mtime and ctime)are older
than the systemd�tmpfiles age configuration.
- The stat command can be run on a file to see the values of all three of its time
stamps.

[root@master ~]# systemd-tmpfiles --remove


[root@master ~]# vim /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf (should not be edited by
system administrator)
d /run/systemd/seats 0755 root root -
D /home/student 0700 student student 1d
L /run/fstablink - root root - /etc/fstab

- /tmp is under systemd-tmpfiles control. To override the upstream settings:


[root@master ~]# cp /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf /etc/tmpfiles.d/
Then change the interval from 10d to 5d.
[root@master ~]# systemd-tmpfiles --clean tmp.conf (Test if systemd accepts the
new configuration)
==========================================
Best wishes:
Abeer :)

You might also like