Run Periodic Tasks with vovcrontab
The UNIX utility crontab is used to perform regularly scheduled tasks such as retracing an entire project each night or storing a back-up of the trace every Saturday. vovcrontab is a VOV utility that simplifies the creation of cron rules for a project. Directions are provided in this section.
Usage: voncontrab
vovcrontab: DESCRIPTION:
vovcrontab: Interface to the UNIX utility crontab.
vovcrontab:
vovcrontab: USAGE:
vovcrontab: % vovcrontab [option]
vovcrontab:
vovcrontab: OPTIONS:
vovcrontab: -help -- Get this message
vovcrontab: -new -- Install the crontab for this project
vovcrontab: Also used to update the scripts/vovdir.csh script.
vovcrontab: -noautostart -- Do not install autostart script to update
vovcrontab: vovdir.csh; the default is to install it.
vovcrontab: -reinstall -- Reinstall current crontab for this project
vovcrontab: -clear -- Clear the current crontab
vovcrontab: -show -- Show the crontab
vovcrontab: -type <type> -- Specify project type
vovcrontab:
vovcrontab: NOTE:
vovcrontab: Please remember to copy
vovcrontab: $(VOVDIR)/etc/autostart/update_crontab_vovdir.csh
vovcrontab: into your autostart directory if needed.
vovcrontab: It is installed by default.
Enable a Project
'vovproject enable <PROJECT>'
Create crontabs
'vovcrontab -new'
to create crontabs.
% vovcrontab -new
vovcrontab: Creating vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh
vovcrontab: Creating cron table vnc.swd/crontab.lion
no crontab for john
vovcrontab: Installing new crontab.
vovcrontab: Installing updated crontab
This program prepares the scripts $SWD/scripts/cron.csh and $SWD/crontab.hostname.
Display Current crontab Definition
vovcrontab -show
shows the current crontab
definition.% vovcrontab -show
#### (vovcrontab) START PROJECT vnc ####
#
# ... some lines omitted...
#
# Every hour at 5 minutes before the hour.
55 * * * * /home/john/vov/vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh hourly
#
# Every day: at 23:15
15 23 * * * /home/john/vov/vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh daily
#
# Every week: on Saturday at 7:00am
0 7 * * 6 /home/john/vov/vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh weekly
#
# Every month: on the 1st at 3:00am
0 3 1 * * /home/john/vov/vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh monthly
#### (vovcrontab) END PROJECT vnc ####
Customize the crontab
vovcrontab
-reinstall
will need to be run to take the modifications into
consideration.
% vovcrontab -reinstall
vovcrontab: vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh exists already.
vovcrontab: vnc.swd/crontab.lion exists already.
vovcrontab: Installing new crontab.
vovcrontab: Installing updated crontab
Delete the Current crontab Definition
'vovcrontab -clear'
vovcrontab: vnc.swd/scripts/cron.csh exists already.
vovcrontab: vnc.swd/crontab.lion exists already.
vovcrontab: Removing the crontab
Complete the Cleanup
% rm crontab.lion