Dillons cron daemon?

its been a couple weeks since reboot, today my system was locking up before kde started, i restarted again, and waited it out while i checked ther logs on antoer tty, it finally booted after a couple minutes delay . but i THINK this is from my misconfigured CUPS, but i cant be sure yet. i found this
Jul 22 01:43:53 localhost kernel: [ 7.021633] sd 10:0:0:3: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk
Jul 22 01:43:53 localhost kernel: [ 7.680955] r8169 0000:01:00.0: eth0: link down
Jul 22 01:43:53 localhost kernel: [ 7.680961] r8169 0000:01:00.0: eth0: link down
Jul 22 01:43:53 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: waiting for carrier
Jul 22 01:43:55 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: carrier acquired
Jul 22 01:43:55 localhost kernel: [ 9.341127] r8169 0000:01:00.0: eth0: link up
Jul 22 01:43:55 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: broadcasting for a lease
Jul 22 01:43:58 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: offered 192.168.137.205 from 192.168.137.1
Jul 22 01:44:01 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: acknowledged 192.168.137.205 from 192.168.137.1
Jul 22 01:44:01 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: checking for 192.168.137.205
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dhcpcd[793]: eth0: leased 192.168.137.205 for 604800 seconds
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dhcpcd[793]: forked to background, child pid 823
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dnsmasq[853]: started, version 2.57 cachesize 150
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dnsmasq[853]: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getopt no-DBus no-I18N DHCP TFTP no-IDN
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dnsmasq[853]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dnsmasq[853]: using nameserver 192.168.137.1#53
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dnsmasq[853]: ignoring nameserver 127.0.0.1 - local interface
Jul 22 01:44:06 localhost dnsmasq[853]: read /etc/hosts - 5 addresses
Jul 22 01:44:07 localhost smbd[894]: [2011/07/22 01:44:07.164595, 0] printing/print_cups.c:109(cups_connect)
Jul 22 01:44:07 localhost smbd[894]: Unable to connect to CUPS server /var/run/cups/cups.sock:631 - No such file or directory
Jul 22 01:44:07 localhost smbd[886]: [2011/07/22 01:44:07.172986, 0] printing/print_cups.c:468(cups_async_callback)
Jul 22 01:44:07 localhost smbd[886]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
Jul 22 01:44:08 localhost crond[987]: /usr/sbin/crond 4.5 dillon's cron daemon, started with loglevel info
Jul 22 01:44:10 localhost proftpd[1330]: localhost.localdomain - ProFTPD 1.3.3e (maint) (built Sun Jun 26 2011 18:25:39 UTC) standalone mode STARTUP
Jul 22 01:44:16 localhost kdm_greet[1389]: Cannot load /usr/share/apps/kdm/faces/.default.face: No such file or directory
Jul 22 01:44:31 localhost nmbd[898]: [2011/07/22 01:44:31.482689, 0] nmbd/nmbd_become_lmb.c:395(become_local_master_stage2)
Jul 22 01:44:31 localhost nmbd[898]: *****
Jul 22 01:44:31 localhost nmbd[898]:
Jul 22 01:44:31 localhost nmbd[898]: Samba name server REDTAIL is now a local master browser for workgroup WEBDEV on subnet 192.168.137.205
Jul 22 01:44:31 localhost nmbd[898]:
Jul 22 01:44:31 localhost nmbd[898]: *****
Jul 22 01:44:34 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:44:34 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:44:34 localhost polkitd[1475]: started daemon version 0.101 using authority implementation `local' version `0.101'
Jul 22 01:44:34 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1'
Jul 22 01:44:34 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit'
Jul 22 01:44:38 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.UPower' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:44:38 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.UPower'
Jul 22 01:44:38 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.UDisks' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:44:38 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.UDisks'
Jul 22 01:44:39 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:44:39 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper'
Jul 22 01:44:39 localhost kernel: [ 54.121868] EXT4-fs (sda3): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0
Jul 22 01:44:40 localhost kernel: [ 54.418295] EXT4-fs (sda4): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0
Jul 22 01:45:07 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.Avahi': timed out
Jul 22 01:46:44 localhost kdm[1179]: X server for display :0 terminated unexpectedly
Jul 22 01:46:46 localhost kdm_greet[1747]: Cannot load /usr/share/apps/kdm/faces/.default.face: No such file or directory
Jul 22 01:46:51 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:46:51 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper'
Jul 22 01:47:00 localhost kdm[1179]: X server for display :0 terminated unexpectedly
Jul 22 01:47:02 localhost kdm_greet[1895]: Cannot load /usr/share/apps/kdm/faces/.default.face: No such file or directory
Jul 22 01:47:07 localhost smbd[1908]: [2011/07/22 01:47:07.667503, 0] printing/print_cups.c:109(cups_connect)
Jul 22 01:47:07 localhost smbd[1908]: Unable to connect to CUPS server /var/run/cups/cups.sock:631 - No such file or directory
Jul 22 01:47:07 localhost smbd[895]: [2011/07/22 01:47:07.667619, 0] printing/print_cups.c:468(cups_async_callback)
Jul 22 01:47:07 localhost smbd[895]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
Jul 22 01:47:07 localhost smbd[895]: [2011/07/22 01:47:07.667834, 0] smbd/server.c:281(remove_child_pid)
Jul 22 01:47:07 localhost smbd[895]: Could not find child 1908 -- ignoring
Jul 22 01:47:12 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:47:12 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper'
Jul 22 01:47:16 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.Avahi': timed out
Jul 22 01:49:06 localhost dhcpcd[823]: eth0: renewing lease of 192.168.137.205
Jul 22 01:49:06 localhost dhcpcd[823]: eth0: acknowledged 192.168.137.205 from 192.168.137.1
Jul 22 01:49:06 localhost dhcpcd[823]: eth0: leased 192.168.137.205 for 604800 seconds
Jul 22 01:49:09 localhost dnsmasq[853]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
Jul 22 01:49:09 localhost dnsmasq[853]: using nameserver 192.168.137.1#53
Jul 22 01:49:09 localhost dnsmasq[853]: ignoring nameserver 127.0.0.1 - local interface
Jul 22 01:53:40 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.kcontrol.kcmclock' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 01:53:40 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.kcontrol.kcmclock'
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2563]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.266044, 0] printing/print_cups.c:109(cups_connect)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2563]: Unable to connect to CUPS server /var/run/cups/cups.sock:631 - No such file or directory
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost -- MARK --
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[895]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.266231, 0] printing/print_cups.c:468(cups_async_callback)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[895]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[895]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.266793, 0] smbd/server.c:281(remove_child_pid)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[895]: Could not find child 2563 -- ignoring
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2566]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.272189, 0] printing/print_cups.c:109(cups_connect)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2566]: Unable to connect to CUPS server /var/run/cups/cups.sock:631 - No such file or directory
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2084]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.327620, 0] printing/print_cups.c:468(cups_async_callback)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2084]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2567]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.873786, 0] printing/print_cups.c:109(cups_connect)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2567]: Unable to connect to CUPS server /var/run/cups/cups.sock:631 - No such file or directory
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2087]: [2011/07/22 08:53:37.873927, 0] printing/print_cups.c:468(cups_async_callback)
Jul 22 08:53:37 localhost smbd[2087]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
Jul 22 08:53:44 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.kcontrol.kcmclock' (using servicehelper)
Jul 22 08:53:44 localhost dbus[962]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.kcontrol.kcmclock'
Jul 22 08:53:48 localhost crond[987]: time disparity of 420 minutes detected
Jul 22 08:53:52 localhost dhcpcd[823]: eth0: renewing lease of 192.168.137.205
Jul 22 08:53:52 localhost dhcpcd[823]: eth0: acknowledged 192.168.137.205 from 192.168.137.1
Jul 22 08:53:52 localhost dhcpcd[823]: eth0: leased 192.168.137.205 for 604800 seconds
Jul 22 08:54:00 localhost crond[987]: FILE /var/spool/cron/root USER root PID 2598 job sys-hourly
Jul 22 08:54:00 localhost crond[2600]: mailing cron output for user root job sys-hourly
Jul 22 08:54:00 localhost crond[2600]: unable to exec /usr/sbin/sendmail: cron output for user root job sys-hourly to /dev/null
note the delays after the time Jul 22 01:43:53, which is after the system booted and maybe when i logged in to kde, the rest of the stuff was causing the hang. i think from that time, until 8:54 was the acutual delay when it finally loaded the desktop. thats a 11 minute hang, but i might be mistaken, i think it only took a few minutes, as opposed to 11 minutes.
but somethign stood out after looking at my everything log, i found the following,
are there cron jobs automatically setup on teh install, or did i get hacked or something?
localhost crond[987]: /usr/sbin/crond 4.5 dillon's cron daemon, started with loglevel info
and later down the line, sendmail?? thats suspicious,
Jul 22 08:54:00 localhost crond[987]: FILE /var/spool/cron/root USER root PID 2598 job sys-hourly
Jul 22 08:54:00 localhost crond[2600]: mailing cron output for user root job sys-hourly
Jul 22 08:54:00 localhost crond[2600]: unable to exec /usr/sbin/sendmail: cron output for user root job sys-hourly to /dev/null
i found this article after searching this and i found another user getting freezes with this "dillon's cron daemon" https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=119570
first of all, i must note the possible obvious to those who might know what this is, im not dillon, and i have no idea what this is. so it stands out as someone who hacked, and set up a sendmail daemon on my system, but after looking, sendmail doesnt exist, atleast in usr/sbin anyway.
is this cron job part of a normal part of the arch install? if so, then does anybody see what else might have caused the hang? CUPS, network dhcp?
Last edited by wolfdogg (2011-07-22 16:20:05)

wolfdogg wrote:
litemotiv wrote:
Yes the cron jobs are normal, they are used to update your logs, your manuals database etc.
When was your last pacman -Syu by the way? Dillon's cron (dcron) was replaced by cronie a few months ago.
thats funny, i updated just last week, and this was my first reboot i think. i had too many jobs open to reboot then. i will have to look into the replacement, maybe i just need to change the line in my daemon list in /etc/rc.conf? im going to check if cronie starts automatically or if i need to replace dcron in my daemons list.
You will first need to install cronie :-)
[karol@black ~]$ pacman -S cronie
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...
:: cronie and dcron are in conflict (cron). Remove dcron? [y/N] N
error: unresolvable package conflicts detected
error: failed to prepare transaction (conflicting dependencies)
:: cronie and dcron are in conflict (cron)
http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 19661.html
Second cronie will in no way `replaces=('dcron')` but will most likely
`conflicts=('dcron')`. Therefore while it will be impossible to install both
on the same system having cronie in [core] will in no way force existing
users to switch.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?ti … did=148455
The daemon name ''crond'' is used by at least two packages, cronie and dcron.
Last edited by karol (2011-07-22 16:39:56)

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Is your crontask not running at all or is the scheduled task failing?
Hey Tommy I sent you some replies yesterday; don't know what happened to them. Yes I can see that crond runs every ten minutes. Also when I created the crontab file using the command you sent here I could see that it was running every minute by looking at root mail in /var/log.
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Output from mail-
From root@razorback Tue Feb 11 08:19:01 2014
Return-Path: <root@razorback>
Received: from razorback (localhost [127.0.0.1])
    by razorback (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id s1BEJ154018231
    for <root@razorback>; Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:19:01 -0600
Received: (from root@localhost)
    by razorback (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id s1BEJ1rh018198;
    Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:19:01 -0600
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:19:01 -0600
Message-Id: <201402111419.s1BEJ1rh018198@razorback>
From: root@razorback (Cron Daemon)
To: root@razorback
Subject: Cron <root@razorback> $(date) >> /tmp/cronout
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/root>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=root>
/bin/sh: Tue: command not found
From root@razorback Tue Feb 11 08:20:02 2014
Return-Path: <root@razorback>
Received: from razorback (localhost [127.0.0.1])
    by razorback (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id s1BEK2BD018267
    for <root@razorback>; Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:20:02 -0600
Received: (from root@localhost)
    by razorback (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id s1BEK1mT018238;
    Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:20:01 -0600
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 08:20:01 -0600
Message-Id: <201402111420.s1BEK1mT018238@razorback>
From: root@razorback (Cron Daemon)
To: root@razorback
Subject: Cron <root@razorback> $(date) >> /tmp/cronout
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/root>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/usr/bin:/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=root>
/bin/sh: Tue: command not found

"cannot open display" with cron script

This works fine from the CLI, but when it runs with the cron daemon, the log file shows "xfburn: cannot open display." How do I go about fixing this?
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
`xfburn --version > /home/tim/scripts/blah.log`;

Hmm I'm not really sure what to do with that. I'll post the whole thing. This is my first time writing in perl, so I'm sure it's really inefficient and ugly.
It's supposed to grab 'svn info' from all my svn packages in /var/local/abs, find my currently installed versions of the svns, and write the results to ~/scripts/svn-updates/outdated.log file.
It works correctly when I run it from the command line, but when I put it in cron.daily, "@svninfo = `$pkgname --version --display=:0.0`;" doesn't work.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
our (@svns, %local_revs, %latest_revs);
our $svn_dir = "/var/abs/local";
our $outdated_log = "/home/tim/scripts/svn-updates/outdated.log";
# Get list of local svn packages
sub get_svns {
my ($name, @svns_results);
opendir(DIR, $svn_dir) or die "Error opening $svn_dir: $!";
foreach $name (readdir(DIR)) {
if($name =~ /(.*)-svn$/) {
push(@svns_results,$1);
closedir(DIR);
return @svns_results;
# Get latest svn revisions
sub get_latest_revs {
my ($pkgname, $svntrunk, $i, @svninfo, %latest_revs_results);
foreach $pkgname (@_) {
# Find trunk path in PKGBUILD
open(INFILE, "$svn_dir/$pkgname-svn/PKGBUILD");
while(<INFILE>) {
if(/^_svntrunk="(.*)"/) {
$svntrunk = $1;
close(INFILE);
# Grab svn info on current package
@svninfo = `svn info $svntrunk`;
# Add latest revision to hash table
foreach $i (@svninfo) {
if($i =~ /^Revision: (\w*)/) {
$latest_revs_results{$pkgname} = $1;
return %latest_revs_results;
# Get local svn revisions
sub get_local_revs {
my ($pkgname, $j, @svninfo, %local_revs_results);
foreach $pkgname (@_) {
@svninfo = `$pkgname --version --display=:0.0`;
# Add local revision to hash table
foreach $j (@svninfo) {
if($j =~ /^.*svn-(\w*)/) {
$local_revs_results{$pkgname} = $1;
return %local_revs_results;
# Write outdated packages to $outdated_log
sub write_outdated {
my $pkg;
`echo > $outdated_log`;
foreach $pkg (@_) {
unless($local_revs{$pkg}==$latest_revs{$pkg}) {
`echo "$pkg $local_revs{$pkg} ($latest_revs{$pkg})" >> $outdated_log`;
# Main
@svns = &get_svns;
%latest_revs = &get_latest_revs(@svns);
%local_revs = &get_local_revs(@svns);
&write_outdated(@svns);

Mirrorlist Updating by way of cronie

Goal
I have a pfSense router with a squid cache. This caches archlinux packages. I have already wrote some (noobish/poor/mediocre) scripts on my home server to download all the packages I have. So when the script runs, it downloads the packages to the /tmp dir, in the process updating any contents of the router's cache. However, I have many arch systems in this network, and sometimes their mirrorlists differ, so we must keep those consistent.
Therefor, the end goal of this post is to update the mirrorlist periodically based on a set of criteria. The criteria is basically that it pulls a new mirrorlist from https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?c … _status=on . This is preferably in a script, placed in /etc/cron.hourly to be ran by the cronie daemon.
What I have
On the server I have a script with the executable bit as follows:
/etc/cron.hourly/archlinux_packages
#!/bin/sh
rm -R /tmp/pacman
list=$(</srv/data/isos/linux/archlinux/scripts/archlinux_packages)
mkdir -p /tmp/pacman/{i686,x86_64}/{cachedir,dbpath}
wget "https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/plain/trunk/pacman.conf.i686?h=packages/pacman" -O "/tmp/pacman/i686.conf"
wget "https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/plain/trunk/pacman.conf.x86_64?h=packages/pacman" -O "/tmp/pacman/x86_64.conf"
pacman -Syw --noconfirm --config="/tmp/pacman/i686.conf" --cachedir="/tmp/pacman/i686/cachedir" --dbpath="/tmp/pacman/i686/dbpath" --arch=i686 $list
pacman -Syw --noconfirm --config="/tmp/pacman/x86_64.conf" --cachedir="/tmp/pacman/x86_64/cachedir" --dbpath='/tmp/pacman/x86_64/dbpath' --arch=x86_64 $list
rm -R /tmp/pacman
The archlinux_packages file in line two is a plain text, space separated file of all packages to be downloaded. Following is an excerpt:
base base-devel audacity geany gparted k3b
On the server and every client machine I have a script with the executable bit as follows:
/etc/cron.hourly/mirrorlist_update
#!/bin/sh
wget "https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=CA&protocol=http&ip_version=4&use_mirror_status=on" -O /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
sed -i 's/^#Server/Server/g' "/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist"
Simple stuff. I stole line three from someone. I wish I could give credit.
Yes, I have enabled/started the cronie daemon/service on all systems.
Problem
Scripts don't appear to be running. I have added logging to the mirrorlist_update script (>> /tmp/mirrorlist_update) and the file is not created.
Scripts do run as root, right?
Here is some possibly interesting output:
# run-parts --test /etc/cron.hourly
/etc/cron.hourly/0anacron
/etc/cron.hourly/archlinux_packages
/etc/cron.hourly/mirrorlist_update
Also, the contents of all the /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist files should have today's date (2014-09-19) in them, but instead they have 2014-09-18. This is from yesterday when I had tested them manually.
I'm kinda stuck at this point. I can't prove it, but at one point during testing yesterday I was SSH'd into my server, and the time stamps on the /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist file were accurate, and I could see the file structure in /tmp being made and populated. Is it a Schrodinger problem where I need to keep an eye on it for it to run?
Any help is greatly appreciated. User error is great.
I probably didn't RTFM enough like usual, right?

I'd suggest you do not use the squid cache. Simply run pacserve on all arch machines to share packages, let your home server download the packages regularily while it runs pacserve constantly. Or maybe even build a full local mirror and use that on all machines.
http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/pacserve/
Last edited by progandy (2014-09-19 22:58:44)

Cron Job in Root Directory

I am running OS 10.4.6 on a Mac G4 450MHz machine. Recently when I opened Activity Monitor I noticed a cron job showed up in the root directory that hadn't been there before. I know I can select the cron job and then click on the Inspect icon but the dialogue boxes that show up do not tell me anything about the cron job except statistics having to do with CPU or memory usage. How do I find out what the cron job is and what it does? Is having a cron job in the root directory normal for 10.4.6? If it's not supposed to be there, how do I get rid of it?
Thanks for your help.
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 450MHz with 768MB of RAM

David,
I think you are seeing the cron daemon. Not a "cron job". The cron daemon is started during the boot process. Cron then reads /etc/crontab. Crontab list "jobs" to be run and at what time. As of Tiger cron has been demoted and launchd handles running "jobs". Cron is still started at boot time but does nothing. It runs for backwards compatibility. There's nothing to get rid of- just leave it alone.

Cron as user

I've written a little script that I want to be run by a user on a daily basis.
crontab -l
00 22 * * * /home/user/scripts/backup
problem is this job doesn't start unless I manually restart the cron daemon after my user has logged in. I've seen one other person having this problem on the arch forums, but it wasn't resolved as far as I could tell. Any ideas?

rc.local didn't work for me
This is the thread I had on this a while back if it helps anyone solve this problem. It looked like crond was trying to send mail via sendmail but godamnit, there is no sendmail program installed or available, and no config files to change it that I could see.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … light=cron

Peculiar cron/gsettings issue [SOLVED]

08/2012 Update: For anyone who finds this looking for a solution to this issue, it seems gnome has changed something and cron now needs the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environment variable set rather than XAUTHORITY. There are a couple methods to get this, but the one I use is a script that runs on login which just runs "echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS > ~/.dbus-session". After that, my wallpaper script just needs to read the file and export it before running gsettings set. A more robust way would be to fetch it from gnome-shell's environment like so:
cat /proc/$(pgrep -u `whoami` ^gnome-shell$)/environ | grep -z DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
You can use this in a wallpaper script to output the appropriate value (including DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=) which you can then wrap with $() and export:
export $(cat /proc/$(pgrep -u `whoami` ^gnome-shell$)/environ | grep -z DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS)
Original post below:
What I'm trying to do is have cron change my gnome 3 wallpaper every 15 minutes. My crontab looks like this:
00,15,30,45 * * * * gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find ~/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)"
Now my issue is that when I reboot, this does not function as it should. My wallpaper is not changed, nor is the gsettings key value. However, if I manually restart the cron daemon after I've logged in, it begins to function again. This issue is present with both fcron and dcron. The issue doesn't seem to be that cron is not running the jobs; here's my crond.log including 2 instances of the jobs that did not work as expected:
Apr 25 13:45:00 localhost fcron[3116]: Job gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find ~/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)" started for user xion (pid 3117)
Apr 25 13:45:03 localhost fcron[3116]: Job gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find ~/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)" completed
Apr 25 13:47:51 localhost fcron[2874]: Job /usr/sbin/run-cron /etc/cron.daily completed (mailing output)
Apr 25 13:47:51 localhost fcron[2874]: Can't find "/usr/sbin/sendmail". Trying a execlp("sendmail"): No such file or directory
Apr 25 13:47:51 localhost fcron[2874]: Can't exec /usr/sbin/sendmail: No such file or directory
Apr 25 13:47:51 localhost fcron[4234]: Job /usr/sbin/run-cron /etc/cron.hourly started for user systab (pid 4235)
Apr 25 13:47:53 localhost fcron[4234]: Job /usr/sbin/run-cron /etc/cron.hourly completed
Apr 25 14:00:00 localhost fcron[5157]: Job gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find ~/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)" started for user xion (pid 5158)
Apr 25 14:00:02 localhost fcron[5157]: Job gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find ~/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)" completed
So the job is being run, but it refuses to actually apply the change until I restart the daemon. What could be the cause of this issue?
Update: Turns out I needed to set DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY for gsettings to be able to set anything. Is there a better way to set these or fetch them from the desktop shell than simply using export in the cron job script?
Last edited by XionZui (2012-11-01 03:27:00)

No luck on any front
Apr 25 15:45:50 localhost fcron[2405]: adding new file xion
Apr 25 15:46:50 localhost fcron[2405]: updating configuration from /var/spool/fcron
Apr 25 15:46:50 localhost fcron[2405]: adding new file xion
Apr 25 16:00:00 localhost fcron[6003]: Job gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find /home/xion/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)" started for user xion (pid 6004)
Apr 25 16:00:02 localhost fcron[6003]: Job gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file://$(find /home/xion/Pictures/Wallpapers -type f | shuf -n1)" completed
Apr 25 16:01:00 localhost fcron[6018]: Job /usr/sbin/run-cron /etc/cron.hourly started for user systab (pid 6019)
Apr 25 16:01:02 localhost fcron[6018]: Job /usr/sbin/run-cron /etc/cron.hourly completed
Apr 25 16:03:41 localhost fcrontab[6032]: fcrontab : editing xion's fcrontab
Apr 25 16:04:50 localhost fcron[2405]: updating configuration from /var/spool/fcron
Apr 25 16:04:50 localhost fcron[2405]: adding new file xion
Apr 25 16:15:00 localhost fcron[6072]: Job /home/xion/Scripting/gnome-desktop.sh started for user xion (pid 6073)
Apr 25 16:15:02 localhost fcron[6072]: Job /home/xion/Scripting/gnome-desktop.sh completed
Could it be related to read permissions on my home folder or gsettings not modifying the correct user settings? Is there any way to see the output of the commands when they're run? What could possibly be changed by restarting the cron daemon with sudo?
Edit: Alright, I've narrowed it down a little bit. It's successfully running the script. gsettings get works fine, the find and shuf commands work fine and output a string in the appropriate format, and I can have it write to a text file. The only thing that won't work for whatever reason is gsettings set, and it doesn't give any errors (or any output at all) when it runs. I've tried it with multiple keys and simple integer values, and it simply won't change anything. Is there possibly an environment variable that needs to be set for it to work properly which isn't set when cron is started at boot?
Last edited by XionZui (2011-04-26 00:50:36)

Are the cron folders already setup to run?

So, after years of using Linux, I'm ready to setup my first cron job.
After I start the cron daemon ("crond" from "cronie"), are the cron.[daily, hourly, monthly, weekly] folders supposed to run automatically?
It appears that they're not, and that I have to add jobs to the root crontab by using "sudo crontab -e" to run the scripts in each of those directories. I'm very surprised because I can't seem to find any information about it on the Arch Linux wiki cron page. I did find a bit of information on setting it up here, which looks accurate but a bit old.
Thank you.

karol wrote:'/usr/bash'? Maybe that's your problem?
Ooh, I bet that was my problem. Thank you for testing it. I, too, setup a little script to test my installation, and will find out if it works in about an hour.
Anyway, thanks to your help, I learned a lot about setting up cron and how it works. When I get the chance, I'll update the (outdated) Arch Linux wiki cron page.
karol wrote:Wrt running 'pacman -Sy' in a cronjob, please read http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 14645.html
I think the final version of the script is here: http://mailman.archlinux.org/pipermail/ … 14673.html
Holy moley, that is some serious pacman-scripting voodoo. That's beautiful! Thanks to that script, I no longer need to use cron or check for updates as root.
I saved a personal copy of that "checkupdates" script, but may I ask what the official plans are for it? Will it be included in a package?

A question about cronie

Hello, I have a new Arch box which has cronie (which comes by default). I'm a bit confused: if I run from root "crontab -l" it says I have no crontabs, however there are in /etc the usual cron.daily cron.weekly etc. directories with in them scripts for updating pkgfile, updatedb, mandb and so on. Do these ever get executed if I have no crontabs?
Then there is /etc/anacrontab, which is owned by cronie - is it him that is running scripts in the afore mentioned directories?
So (and this is the question I'm most concerned in), if I want to add a cron job, should I edit /etc/anacrontab or do crontab -e?

Your cron daemon will parse both configurations in /etc/cron* and your crontab. For adding simple cronjobs yourself, "crontab -e" is the easiest way to go.

Dillons cron daemon?

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