Cron, cronX and maintenance scripts

In my old iBook I used cronX (I think that's the name) to set the unix maintenance scripts to run when the computer is likely to be awake. I don't know that those things bought me anything, but can't hurt, right?
My problem - I'd like to get a current version for the new MacBook (wow! - way cool!) but neither Google nor VersionTracker have a listing for any version of cronX. I recall it came from somewhere in Europe so perhaps that's why? Also have heard of MacJanitor and maybe a couple of other apps that will do a similar function.
Can anyone point me to a source for cronX or similar?
Thanks!
MacBook 13" 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Oops - got lucky searching for something else!
It's cronniX from http://h5197.serverkompetenz.net:9080/abstracture_public/projects-en/cronnix/
MacBook 13" 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Similar Messages

Cron & missed maintenance scripts

Hiya.
I'm assuming the cron-driven daily/weekly/monthly maintenance scripts are not run if the computer is sleeping.
What (if any) is the easiest way to get caught up on those if missed for a while?
Thanks in advance...

Hi--
They're actually not run by cron any more, but by launchd. So, if the computer is sleeping, but not actually off, they will eventually run. On my PowerBoook, the daily runs about once a week, the weekly every couple of months, and the monthly not often at all.
If you want to run them by hand, you can easily run them in the Terminal (press the "enter" key after each line):
<pre class="command">sudo periodic daily
sudo periodic weekly
sudo periodic monthly</pre>
I think you can run them all like this, too:
<pre class="command">sudo periodic daily weekly monthly</pre>
but I've never run them that way. I either let them run on their own, or run them one at a time.
charlie

Mac OS X maintenance scripts and multiple user accounts

Hi everyone
Just wondering how the default maintenance scripts scheduled to run in the early morning works with multiple user accounts. Our Macs at home all have multiple user accounts (one for each of us) and I'm wondering whether the scripts work their magic across all accounts (assuming the computer itself is switched on AND not asleep).
Also, is the behaviour the same regardless of Mac OS X version? More specifically we're using snow leopard, lion, mountain lion, and maybe shortly mavericks.
Thanks!
Joe.

The maintenance scripts run by periodic perform system tasks. They do nothing in a user's account (unless you modify the scripts or create your own). They are primarily designed for long lived systems (servers). There isn't any magic nor would a normal mac users find any differences whether they ran or not.
In all the operating system versions that you mention, the scripts will run when the computer wakes, assuming that the computer was turned on before the prescribe times.

Running Maintenance Scripts for Mac OS 10.5.8 HELP!

I am trying to run the maintenance scripts on my laptop for the first time. I go to Terminal type in "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly" and hit return. A warning message pops up the some data may be lost.... and the the Password prompt comes up. I back up consistently so I just want to run the scripts since it has never been done. However, when I try to type in my password, NOTHING types. I hit return and tried again, but nothing. Can someone please help me figure out what is wrong and if there is any other maintenance I need to do to the system?
Thanks in advance for any help.

You don't need to use any utility, or perform any procedure, to make sure OS X's built-in maintenance tasks have run under OS X 10.5 and later.
OS X 10.5 will run its cron jobs automatically (actually, they are no longer handled by the UNIX facility "cron", they are now handled by a similar facility called "launchd". if that means anything to you) whether you have left your computer on all night or not. You no longer need a utility to run missed maintenance as of OS X 10.5. It will run automatically at the next available opportunity. Actually, this was the case as of OS X 10.4, but a bug kept the maintenance routines from running more than once per restart under OS X 10.4. This was fixed in OS X 10.5
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6552347
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/5
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/launchd.html

Root crontab no system maintenance scripts

Server: HP DL380, Redhat 4 update 6 (download from linux.oracle.com)
Today I checked crontab and noticed that there are no system maintenance scripts running under root, to e.g. rotate log files, etc. Is this normal, any suggestions please?
Best regards

Check the directories below. Linux cron has directories for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly root scripts where you can drop scripts that you want to run periodically. This is handy if you do not want to maintain a root crontab file.
ll /etc |grep cron
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 329 Sep 28 2004 anacrontab
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 27 15:37 cron.d
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 7 16:08 cron.daily
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 12 2007 cron.deny
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 20 2004 cron.hourly
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 12 2007 cron.monthly
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 255 Sep 20 2004 crontab
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 28 2007 cron.weekly

Do I need maintenance scripts ?

I am using Macaroni which runs Unix maintenance script every time I start the computer. At night the cpmputer is shut off. Do I really need to run these scripts with Snow Leopard ?

I know people have weighed in on this before.
sudo periodic all
that is all and no I don't leave mine on, or run them daily, in fact hardly at all. But I do other things to keep the system in top shape.
as long as the utility is certified compatible, you are fine. I think Onyx, SL Cache Cleaner and others can also automatically schedule cron to run next time, I just don't do anything automatic.
Every time you start? or once a day? some scripts are only weekly and monthly anyway.

Cron job not running - script uses rsync, ssh (with id_rsa)

Does anyone know how to get cron to run a rsync/ssh script which uses id_rsa for passwordless logins?
I have a backup script I have slaved for months over that works wonderfully when running it from the command line.
It uses rsync and connects with SSH (passwordless using ssh keys). I have setup id_rsa and id_rsa.pub for passwordless logins (this is my user account, and connects using root@ to the server)
As stated all works find when run from the command line. But when I setup a cron job to run this file (exact same line I run from the command line) it does not execute. Actually, it does run, as I have an email notifiction which sends to me. It is just the rsync/ssh part that does not run.
I have spent days and days trying to figure it out. No error messages occur, nothing. Took me a while to find out cron is emailing the user account on Lion the messages (not to a proper email address).
The error shows a permission denied, which I believe to be the cron user cannot use the id_rsa/ssh connection.
Cron is running the script as my user, the same I use on the command line. I even tried copying the id_rsa to the root user .ssh folder in case cron is running as root but that does not work either.
So does anyone know how to get cron to run this rsync/ssh script which used id_rsa for passwordless logins?
Thanks a lot

YES! Got it working, finally!
So the issue is indeed cron/launchd not being able to access the ssh-agent which holds the key.
So this is the solution...
Download keychain for Mac:
http://www.funtoo.org/wiki/Keychain
Then once its installed and configured, the script to run needs this added to the top:
eval `keychain --noask --eval id_rsa` || exit 1
Note I am using id_rsa whereas keychains instructions refer to id_dsa so I just changed it and it works OK.
When the script runs the first time it asks for the key password. Then it works from then on.
What I do not know yet is will I need to re-enter the password when I logoff/logon again. That will cause an issue as I auto restart the Mac every day which means if I am off for a few days backup will stop (can you see the madness in this issue!).

Best Order to Perform Cleaning and Maintenance?

Hello. Is there any order that's best to run System Maintenance Scripts, Caches cleaning, Optimizing the System, and Rebuilding the Launch Services Database? Do I need to restart between any of the operations, or just one time after they're all completed? Thanks.

Hello. Is there any order that's best to run System Maintenance Scripts, Caches cleaning, Optimizing the System, and Rebuilding the Launch Services Database?
Yes, after a complete backup, and after not doing any of the listed things unless you are actually having problems.
Seriously, back up before doing things to the system. None of the things you mentioned really needs doing unless you are actually having problems.
OSX runs its own maintenance scripts that do some of the things.
Maybe rebuild LaunchServvices if it is really looking messy and you are having problems with files finding applications.
I am not sure exactly what "Optimizing the System" is. This sounds to me like it is coming out of some disk defragmentation utility. OSX does some defragmentation on its own and you only get into serious fragmentation issues if you crowd your drive with huge files.
The best maintenance thing you can do is make sure you always have sufficient disc space so OSX can run comfortably. OSX is always creating temporary files. On my computer it routinely uses 6GB drive space so I like to leave it about 18 minimum.
Periodically run Disk Utility to verify your drive and permissions, especially before and after installing software and if you have problems. Repair if necessary.
Message was edited by: Limnos

Execution of maintenance scripts in Lion

Hi there,
as of the latest update to OS X Lion, the maintenance scripts have ceased to perform automatically. Before, the scripts executed at their proper times (daily, weekly, monthly) and whenever the computer was running (no need to wait for specific time slots). I was able to verify the processes via Maintidget, a widget that monitors script activity and can also be used to execute them manually. As I said, presently there is no more automated script activity - I have to force their execution via Maintidget. Does anyone has an idea why this should be so?

the discussion of the timed maintenance is an old one and does no longer apply.
Sure it does. Those scripts are ancient carry-overs from the early days of Unix and have not been changed much since then.
Also, macjack has a good point. Verify what the widget is telling you. Paste the following command into the Terminal to find out when they last ran:
ls -al /var/log/*.out
The output on my machine is:
Hyperion:~ thomas$ ls -al /var/log/*.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 355773 Feb 20 06:05 /var/log/daily.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1352 Feb 1 06:07 /var/log/monthly.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2697 Feb 18 09:31 /var/log/weekly.out

Maintenance scripts

Hi everyone,
I have two questions that I need help with, both related to the running of maintenance scripts. I downloaded and installed "anacron" the other day. When I check terminal, I notice that the daily maintenance script runs between midnight and 1am each day. I'm pretty sure that the default time for Tiger is somewhere between 3 and 4 am, a time which is assumed to not have much user activity. If the maintenance scripts are now being run around midnight or 1am, times when I am likely to be using the computer, will I notice a system slowdown? I've heard that supplemental maintenance scripts programs, (like Onyx, anacron, macjanitor, etc) are not necessary.
I would uninstall the program, but I've tried searching for the files that the readme says to delete, and I am unable to find them (using the Finder and EasyFind). I am not sure if the program has now replaced Tiger maintenance, and if I delete anacron then the Tiger scripts won't run anymore. Can someone provide me with a way to safely uninstall the program and ensure that the scripts will still run? Thank you.

Hi Louis
I have been running Anacron for several years with no problems. You will not know when it is running most of the time unless you hear your hardrive clicking. Since my computer sleeps through the scheduled times it normally would run, it will run the scrips at times after the time period exceeds the time limit set since last run. Daily scripts every 24 hrs., etc. Anacron will check every hour to test the time limit to see if it needs to run and will run the scripts when needed. Therefore, if your computer was sleeping or off less than 24 hrs. of the time the daily script was set to run or since the last time it was run and you wake it or turn it on 3 days later, the daily script will run approximately 15 minutes past the next hour.
As I said, it has never given me a problem and you won't ever have to worry about the log files getting bloated.
These scripts don't really need to be run that often and some people prefer to use manuel programs such as ONYX to run them on occasion. That's probably more of a personal preference. I choose not to want to think about it and let Anacron do it's thing. If I ever think it may be causing problems, I won't hesitate to remove it. But so far on 3 computers, no problems.
But if you feel the need to uninstall it follow this:
To uninstall Anacron, go to Hard Drive/Library/LaunchDaemons/anacron.plist. Move the file "anacron.plist" to the desktop and restart the computer. Then you can trash anacron.plist file.
Or, search in the Finder or with spotlight for Anacron. You will see the "anacron.plist" file. Delete it and restart the computer. Then you will be able to empty the trash.
I can't really say how much this and permission repair has really helped, but I can tell you that for 3 years I have virtually no problems with my computers and have never had to reinstall the operating system on any of them other than updating or moving to the newer OSX.

How to launch and run script against safari using selenium webdriver

I am trying to launch and run my selenium webdriver script using safari but its launching safari but not running script. Its throwing belwo error message..
org.openqa.selenium.remote.UnreachableBrowserException: Failed to connect to SafariDriver after 50052 ms
Build info: version: '2.33.0', revision: '4e90c97', time: '2013-05-22 15:33:32'
System info: os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.7.0_25'
Driver info: driver.version: SafariDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.safari.SafariDriverCommandExecutor.start(SafariDriverComman dExecutor.java:113)
    at org.openqa.selenium.safari.SafariDriver.startClient(SafariDriver.java:112)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:110)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:115)
    at org.openqa.selenium.safari.SafariDriver.<init>(SafariDriver.java:83)
    at org.openqa.selenium.safari.SafariDriver.<init>(SafariDriver.java:73)
    at LinkText.setUp(LinkText.java:38)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.jav a:47)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java :12)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java: 44)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:24)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:27)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:271)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:7 0)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:5 0)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:238)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:63)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:236)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:53)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:229)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:309)
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    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunne r.java:467)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunne r.java:683)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.jav a:390)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.ja va:197)

Hey Reese
You bailed me out, dude! Apparently, my difficulties stemmed from me trying to directly edit /var/cron/tabs/root with pico. Never seemed to bother the other stuff, but it did this time. I am totally inept with vi, the default editor for crontab -e, which is why I had cheated before, and directly edited the /var/cron/tabs/root, el.al., so I had to find out how to
export EDITOR='pico'
in my .bashrc
After having done that, no problem, except for a latent programming logic bug that has reared its ugly head (my script is doing some date manipulation with today's and yesterday's date, and my script crashed and burned on the month change and with stuff related to single-digit date sequence numbers <10).
But, hey, I learned how to reset my default editor, so as to make life easier for me when it comes time to dorking with crontab files, and I learned that when the crontab file says "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall," it means it!
Thanx for the troubleshooting hint.

Maintenance Scripts?? MacJanitor?

On my G4 iBook running 10.3 I found and used an app called Macjanitor.
Here is the blurb from their site.
Freeware utility to run the system's daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts.
These scripts are normally run between 3am and 5am, and will not be run if you shut off your Mac at night. This can allow log files to grow very large, and prevent system databases from getting backed up.
With MacJanitor, you can run these scripts 'by hand' periodically without having to use the Terminal to keep your Mac OS X machine in top racing form.
Excellent for laptop users and others who shut off or put their Macs to sleep at night.
Supposedly normal set maintenance scripts in OS X are set to run around 3-5am (not sure where you see this) but they will only run if the system is on (of course) and Not asleep. Well I can guarantee my system is alseep as that time !!
I also stumbled across someone commenting on how useless MacJanitor was because they use something called Aancron http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron-tiger.html
Blurb from their site
Anacron runs the periodic daily, weekly and monthly tasks on your Mac even if the machine (a laptop, for example) spends much of its time asleep or switched-off. Anacron silently checks when you reboot and every sixty minutes while the computer is running to see if the various periodic scripts are overdue, and runs them if necessary. The advantage of Anacron over many other solutions to this issue is that it runs as a proper Unix background process, requires no user intervention, and uses the regular periodic scripts, including local additions or modifications.
Sounds like a better solution, but I curious to what others due for running these maintenance scripts?
Has anyone used either of these 2 programs under 10.4?
Opinions and experiences please.

Yes, I use OnyX because it runs them at times I have scheduled it to do so. 10.4.0 or later runs them automatically, if the computer is on and idle at 1AM, which isn't normal for many people so running them with an app can be good if you leave your machine running for days or weeks at a time. That said if you shut down your machine down every night there is no need to because the tasks will be run at boot each morning.

OSB maintenance scripts

Where can I find more information about OSB's maintenance scripts? Specifically, what is responsible for rotation and cleanup of old files under /usr/local/oracle/backup/admin/history/host/ on the OSB server?
I have files under /usr/local/oracle/backup/admin/history/host/<hostname>/<date>.<hostname>.0.saved that are from more than 7 months ago. Under OSB's policies, we have the "Log retain time" and "Transcript retain time" set to 14 days (default is 7 days), and the "Job retain time" set to 21 days (default is 30 days). Do any of those retention policy settings impact the cleanup of the above mentioned files? It seems they do not, as the files located there that are 7+ months old are quite past that retention and have not been cleaned up.
Are the files under /usr/local/oracle/backup/admin/history/host/ maintained by OSB internally, or are those files and directories something that I as the system admin should be cleaning via a cronjob?
OSB version 10.4.0.2.0

That Mac sets up I-net connection not only in the night.
The logs of router controlling the lan where the Mac is physically present show for some day
a setup of nearly 8 I-net connections between 9 and 18 o'clock.
Again it must have been the Mac because the WiFi access point was shut down in that time
and the only other client with Ethernet connection was also shut down at that time.

Run Maintenance Scripts

On my PM G5 in the past I have successfully run maintenance scripts as follows:
periodic daily weekly monthly
from the terminal window with no problems. Usually when the command line is
executed the sys asks for master password and when it is entered, the program runs
without further messages, only cursor displayed, until it finishes and returns
the command line prompt.
Now suddenly when the command is executed the sys returns:
208-106-62-250:~ richardrkelley$ periodic daily
/usr/sbin/periodic: line 1: /var/log/daily.out: Permission denied
/usr/sbin/periodic: line 106: 370 Broken pipe date
cat: /tmp/periodic.7sKejqD8Mz: Bad file descriptor
cat: /tmp/periodic.7sKejqD8Mz: Bad file descriptor
cat: /tmp/periodic.7sKejqD8Mz: Bad file descriptor
208-106-62-250:~ richardrkelley$
I have run the disk utility and repaired permissions and repaired the disk
with no change. There were some minor repairs done to permissions and disk.
I would appreciate advice as the how to fix this problem and to prevent
future occurrence of same.
Thanks all.

Oops; I had a senior moment.
The correct command to run maint scripts is:
sudo periodic ........
sorry for the dumb question.

MacBook Maintenance Scripts?

Hey there guys,
I have heard a little bit on these Maintenance Scripts which are supposedly run during the late hours at night when any given Mac is left running for 24 hours.
Does anyone have any further info on these maintenance scripts?

Hyde244 wrote:
Hey there guys,
I have heard a little bit on these Maintenance Scripts which are supposedly run during the late hours at night when any given Mac is left running for 24 hours.
Does anyone have any further info on these maintenance scripts?
There's a widget that I have so that I can monitor the maintenance scripts and manually run them if need be. It's called [Maintidget|http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/maintidget.html].
Works for me -GDF

Cron, cronX and maintenance scripts

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