Re: cron(8) improvement

On Wed, Nov 6, 2013, at 18:21, Tim Kientzle wrote:
> 
> On Nov 5, 2013, at 9:31 AM, Allan Jude <freebsd_at_allanjude.com> wrote:
> 
> > This came up in discussion on IRC and I thought I should throw it at the
> > list so I don't forget.
> > 
> > A user was asking how to do what linux cron does, where there is a
> > directory /etc/cron.d/ that packages and add files to to create crontabs.
> > 
> > Making FreeBSD's cron (Vixie Cron) include /etc/cron.d/ and
> > /usr/local/etc/cron.d/ in the /etc/crontab format seems like a very
> > useful feature, especially for pkg(8) as it makes it easy and safe to
> > programatically add and remove crontabs as part of a package.
> 
> This is a good idea.  We should do it.
> 
> How and if this facility gets used is a separate question.
> 
> "Tools, not policy."
> 
> Support for a cron.d directory is a tool that can be
> used in many ways.  The policy of how it should be
> used is a separate discussion.  (For example, whether
> or not ports or packages should install crontab files into
> /usr/local/etc/cron.d/ can be richly debated after that
> directory exists.)
> 

Ok, so we create that directory. Now nobody can use it in a port until
FreeBSD 8.4 is EoL -- approximately June 30, 2015.

We should be using the existing cron tabs directory *now*. We can't
easily force older versions of FreeBSD to update their cron software or
configuration to support that new directory.

I'm not saying we shouldn't create it, just that we can't effectively
use it for 2 years.