Cron scripts no longer being run in Tiger??

[CalGrunt]

Is this true. According to some info in this thread, it is.

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=271254

"Run cron scripts? In Tiger, there are no cron scripts anymore! Check out /etc/crontab yourself. The periodic scripts are handled by launchd now, and if your computer is asleep when they're supposed to run, they run automatically when the computer wakes up."

If this is true, is there really a need for programs like onyX or Cocktail anymore???

 

[untamedhysteria]

the answer to that would seem to be no. they did indeed change the scripts from being cron jobs to being in launchd. now you won't have issues with having to manually do cleanups for the computer. but that's not to say you still can't use some of the utilities found in the programs like cocktail or mainmenu. these programs actually serve a lot of other maintenance tasks that i see useful in certain situations (or when i really feel like doing some house-cleaning).

 

[reh]

I waited a week or so before I installed Anacron in Tiger. The daily/weekly/monthly scripts do not seem to run automatically out of the box in Tiger. But, thankfully, Anacron came to the rescue.

 

[CalGrunt]

I waited a week or so before I installed Anacron in Tiger. The daily/weekly/monthly scripts do not seem to run automatically out of the box in Tiger. But, thankfully, Anacron came to the rescue.

But I don't think you even need Anacron any more. According to the quote in the original post, in Tiger, the periodic scripts are handled by launchd and they run automatically as soon as your computer wakes up. So, if this is the case, why would you need Anacron ??

 

[reh]

But I don't think you even need Anacron any more. According to the quote in the original post, in Tiger, the periodic scripts are handled by launchd and they run automatically as soon as your computer wakes up. So, if this is the case, why would you need Anacron ??

Like I said, I waited a week or two. I checked the logs and Tiger had not done anything. Hence, anacron.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Cronnix and related scheduling utilities aren't obsoleted by this change...although cron itself no longer exists, the crontab it maintained is still around (launchd now handles any tasks that end up there).

 

[mkrishnan]

Cronnix and related scheduling utilities aren't obsoleted by this change...although cron itself no longer exists, the crontab it maintained is still around (launchd now handles any tasks that end up there).

Yes, I have a task I put in crontab myself (using Crontooie, I think), which definitely runs in Tiger.

As for the periodic tasks, mine seem to run without being done manually or having re-added them via Cronnix -- at least, my logs show that daily and weekly have been running recently, and I have not done anything to cause them to be ran.

 

[CalGrunt]

Yes, I have a task I put in crontab myself (using Crontooie, I think), which definitely runs in Tiger.

As for the periodic tasks, mine seem to run without being done manually or having re-added them via Cronnix -- at least, my logs show that daily and weekly have been running recently, and I have not done anything to cause them to be ran.

Question. Have they been running because you keep your computer on all the time, or are they running peridocally when your comp first wakes up, as was quoted in the original post.

 

[mkrishnan]

Question. Have they been running because you keep your computer on all the time, or are they running peridocally when your comp first wakes up, as was quoted in the original post.

Neither, as far as I can tell...on weekdays, my computer is often on during the day, but it seems to run daily at different times during the day on different days, typically in the late morning or the afternoon. But it has also run daily on the weekends, and my computer is on very irregularly during the weekends.

Weekly doesn't seem that regular, either -- it is definitely not running every week -- it seems to run every two or three weeks. And monthly hasn't run at all during that time period.

 

[CalGrunt]

Neither, as far as I can tell...on weekdays, my computer is often on during the day, but it seems to run daily at different times during the day on different days, typically in the late morning or the afternoon. But it has also run daily on the weekends, and my computer is on very irregularly during the weekends.

Weekly doesn't seem that regular, either -- it is definitely not running every week -- it seems to run every two or three weeks. And monthly hasn't run at all during that time period.

Ok, so if this is the case, then it seems that one doesn't need to keep their computer on all the time for these scripts to run like they used to in the middle of the night, and that they*run periodically at various times of the day while your computer is on, correct?

 

[VanNess]

I waited a week or so before I installed Anacron in Tiger. The daily/weekly/monthly scripts do not seem to run automatically out of the box in Tiger. But, thankfully, Anacron came to the rescue.

There was an issue with launchd in 10.4.0 which prevented the scripts from running automatically (i.e., daily/weekly/monthly). They would run only once (if you leave your computer on) the first night after a restart but fail to run after that until you restarted your computer again. That was fixed as of 10.4.1

It appears the scripts will reschedule themselves now if you leave your computer on 24/7 and let it sleep at night, but I don't know the details. I usually leave mine on and just sleep the display, but when I have slept my computer, I've noticed that the scripts that normally wouldn't have run (pre-Tiger) were run at odd hours afterwards.

 

[reh]

Next time I install Tiger I'll leave anacron off again and see. I can't remember if my test was under 10.4.0 or .1. If this is true, that's very cool. I can't believe it took Apple so long to implement something so easy.