向Solaris系统添加cron job

cron is a unix, solaris utility that allows tasks to be automatically run in the background at regular intervals by the cron daemon. These tasks are often termed as cron jobs in unix , solaris.

Crontab (CRON TABle) is a file which contains the schedule of cron entries to be run and at specified times.

1. Crontab Restrictions
____________
You can execute crontab if your name appears in the file /usr/lib/cron/cron.allow. If that file does not exist, you can use
crontab if your name does not appear in the file /usr/lib/cron/cron.deny.
width="350" scrolling="no" height="300" frameborder="0" align="right" src="http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab_top_336_280.html"> If only cron.deny exists and is empty, all users can use crontab. If neither file exists, only the root user can use crontab. The allow/deny files consist of one user name per line.

2. Crontab Commands
__________
export EDITOR=vi ;to specify a editor to open crontab file.

crontab -e     Edit your crontab file, or create one if it doesn't already exist.
crontab -l      Display your crontab file.
crontab -r      Remove your crontab file.
crontab -v      Display the last time you edited your crontab file. (This option is only available on a few systems.)
 

3. Crontab file
___________
Crontab syntax :-
A crontab file has five fields for specifying day , date and time  followed by the command to be run at that interval.

*     *   *   *    *  command to be executed -     -    -    -    - |     |     |     |     | |     |     |     |     +----- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0) |     |     |     +------- month (1 - 12) |     |     +--------- day of month (1 - 31) |     +----------- hour (0 - 23) +------------- min (0 - 59)

* in the value field above means all legal values as in braces for that column.
The value column can have a * or a list of elements separated by commas. An element is either a number in the ranges shown above or two numbers in the range separated by a hyphen (meaning an inclusive range).

Note: The specification of days can be made in two fields: month day and weekday. If both are specified in an entry, they are cumulative meaning both of the entries will get executed .

4. Crontab Example
_______

A line in crontab file like below  removes the tmp files from /home/someuser/tmp each day at 6:30 PM.

30     18     *     *     *         rm /home/someuser/tmp/*

 

Changing the parameter values as below will cause this command to run at different time schedule below :

min	hour	day/month	month	day/week	Execution time
30	0	1	1,6,12	*	-- 00:30 Hrs  on 1st of Jan, June & Dec.
:
0	20	*	10	1-5	--8.00 PM every weekday (Mon-Fri) only in Oct.
:
0	0	1,10,15	*	*	-- midnight on 1st ,10th & 15th of month
:
5,10	0	10	*	1	-- At 12.05,12.10 every Monday & on 10th of every month
:

Note : If you inadvertently enter the crontab command with no argument(s), do not attempt to get out with Control-d. This removes all entries in your crontab file. Instead, exit with width="350" scrolling="no" height="300" frameborder="0" align="right" src="http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab_bottom_336_280.html"> Control-c.

5. Crontab Environment
___________
cron invokes the command from the user's HOME directory with the shell, (/usr/bin/sh).
cron supplies a default environment for every shell, defining:
HOME=user's-home-directory
LOGNAME=user's-login-id
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:.
SHELL=/usr/bin/sh

Users who desire to have their .profile executed must explicitly do so in the crontab entry or in a script called by the entry.

6. Disable Email
____________

By default cron jobs sends a email to the user account executing the cronjob. If this is not needed put the following command At the end of the cron job line .

>/dev/null 2>&1

7. Generate log file
________________

To collect the cron execution execution log in a file :

30 18  *    *   *    rm /home/someuser/tmp/* > /home/someuser/cronlogs/clean_tmp_dir.log

8. Next Steps

This  article  covered  a significant aspect of system administration of setting up cronjobs . Unix administration involves lots of different tasks and some of these tasks are covered in this website  but still there are many areas not covered here .

Following books available for online buying from Amazon.com . You should have following two books in your bookshelf  for ready reference  if you are involved in Unix system administration  . 

Essential System Administration, Third Edition by by Æleen Frisch
Solaris Operating Environment Boot Camp by David Rhodes, Dominic Butler

If you already own these books the amazon display panel below shows some of the best-selling books for System Administration  and you can choose the book here or visit my other website for more selection of best selling unix system administration books by following this link - .Unix system administration books at besttechbooks.com ,from Amazon.com.