Re: cron(8) improvement

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 4:27 AM, Allan Jude <freebsd_at_allanjude.com> wrote:
> On 2013-11-06 20:49, Mark Felder wrote:
>>
>> 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.
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> My use case is less about packages, and more about puppet, ansible etc.
> Puppet relies on these hideously large markers in the crontab files to
> programmatically add/remove crons, whereas a cron.d directory could be
> done nice and clean
>
> And in that case, the fact that it is not supported on 8.x does not
> bother me.
>
> --
> Allan Jude
>
>

What's wrong with using the existing tools for achieving the same
effect? Periodic can be adapted to do exactly what you're describing
as noted above by adding an hourly (even minutely? :D ) periodic run.
Also periodic already has support for ports installing their own jobs
under /usr/local/etc/periodic.d that can be enabled/disabled in
periodic.conf.

-Kimmo