Maintenance script problem

Cannot run the Terminal command sudo periodic daily weekly monthly. See my attachment. Can anyone help please?

Your attachment looks normal to me, what happens when you input your password?
(bear in mind that you will see no keystrokes when entering password) this is normal, just press the 'Return' key.

Similar Messages

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.

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)

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.

Reschedule maintenance scripts?

Is there a way to reschedule the maintenance scripts that run from 3:15 until 5:30?
I would like to run them earlier so that I can shut down the computer before I go to bed, since I don't want to leave the machine on all night. I know you can do them manually, but I don't want to have to do that every day.
Also, does anyone know if there would be some sort of problem if I rescheduled them? Can one continue working while they are running?
Thanks
eMac 1.25GHz, 512MB Mac OS X (10.3.5)

Sorry for the dead link. I guess O'Reilly has issues with a direct link. Here's another site that explains how to edit crontab-
Using the cron maintenance utility
Though written for 10.1 the instructions are the same. Your system crontab file will look different. Scripts are run by periodic in Panther instead of directly running a specific script. Try experimenting with pico if you haven't used a command line text editor before. The OS is full explanations try the following commands in the Terminal application-
man cron
man periodic
man periodic.conf
man pico
man 5 crontab
man crontab
Try NifflerX's suggestion if this seems to hard. Though using the Terminal way is good practice for changing system configuration files without the risk of gumming up your OS.

Maintenance scripts question

I was just wondering if the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts will run overnight if I have the 'puter set to sleep after an hour or so. In other words, will it wake itself to do maintenance? Thanks!

If you would like to forget about the problem then download and install either Macaroni or PseudoAnacron - VersionTracker or MacUpdate. They will automatically run the scripts whenever the computer becomes available if they did not run at their scheduled times.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.0 is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.6.1 is Leopard compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that presently AppleJack is not compatible with Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.

Maintenance scripts, whats that all about?

In this case I do not actually have a problem, but have heard about on other forums recently something about scripts running in the middle of the night, assuming you leave your computer on that somehow magically keep your Mac working properly. I did a search on the apple forums for this but to no avail.
Anyone know what this is about? Does it actually work, and if so why?
From my perspective it seems like one could cause more problems by always leaving a pc on, due to power failures or surges etc.
Thanks in advance for some insight on this, or links where I could learn more.

Yes, the Keebler elves are busy late at night keeping the computer problem free!
There are three maintenance scripts that Unix runs on a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule. The scripts are run automatically between 3 and 5 am provided the computer is turned on and not sleeping. The scripts perform certain general maintenance chores such as deleting old log and temporary files, rotating the logs, and updating the lookup database.
These maintenance activities prevent log files from growing to unwieldy size which also tends to keep the logs from becoming corrupted. This does help keep OS X running smoother, but they hardly keep OS X completely free of problems. Other efforts are needed:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior. DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. However, DW is not yet compatible with Intel Macs. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 is Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility called Macaroni that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk 6 (Shareware)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. SuperDuper (Commercial)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - not universal binary.)
7. LaCie SilverKeeper (Freeware - not universal binary)
8. RsynchX 2.1 and PsyncX 2.2.1 (Freeware)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.

Maintenance view problem "No data maintenance Authorization; Display only"

Maintenance view problem
Question 1>>>>
> I have created a table with Display/maintenance allowed and technical setting Data class - APPL0 (master data, transparent tables).
>> Then I have created a maintenance view thought utilities->table maintenance generator where i have specified the Authorization group as &NC& (w/o auth. group)
->and also created a function group and specified in the maintenance screen-> I have selected maintenance type as one step-> i have given the overview screen number->and in Recording routine i have selected - no, or user ,recording routine.
>>> Now when i go to transaction SM30 and put the table name and press on maintain button I get a information box saying "No data maintenance Authorization; Display only".... and it only displays the data.
my problem is I want to enter data through maintenance view (SM30).
2nd Question >>>> once i create a function group for maintenance view how can i assign a transaction for this. (as if i do it as we do for a module pool program it gives me error)Thank you.
kailash

SE93. Enter a transaction name. Create. In the pop up enter a title and select 'Transaction with parameters'.
Next screen fill the following;
Transaction 'SM30'
Check 'Skip first screen'
In the table control at the bottom of the screen
Name of screen field 'VIEWNAME'
Value <your table name>
Name of screen field 'SHOW'
Value 'X'
Save.
Job done.

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

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

Saved File Groups Issue in Bridge Center - script problem?

Hi all,
I tried posting this in the Bridge forum with no replies. After browsing through this forum I'm wondering if this is a script problem?
I have the CS2 premium, and use all packages. The problem I have is saving and retrieving files in the 'Saved File Groups' of Bridge Center. I can save Photoshop files no problem, but the idea is to be able to save other files from open applications in the group and then to recall them later. I can save Illustrator files with others in a group but only Photoshop files open, and it ignores the saved Illustrator files.
With my InDesign files, it does not even recognise them as files to be saved. I can have a file open, click on "Save open files into a file group" and it will come up with a little box saying there are no open files to save!
OS - XP sp2. Bridge 1.0.2
If this can be helped with scripting, please explain clearly, I am a graphic designer and no very little indeed about scripting.
Your help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Thysje Arthur

Hi,
Do you mean that Windows displays “Network Shortcuts” folder when you click “Browse” icon? If so, please check if you configure the default local file location to the “Network Shortcuts” folder. You could refer to the image below to find the option of the default
local file location.
Best Regards,
Mandy
We
are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.

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.

When I try to go to icloud I get 'script problem' and cannot enter. Could someone please advise me what to try. Thanks.

When I try to go to ilcoud I get 'script problem' and can't enter. Please advise what I should try. Thanks.

I use e-trade and a couple of times, years back, I found them behind the Java updates.
So, now I install new Java platforms on my backup disk and test the streaming data on that first because I know it will be over-written that evening with my nightly backup.
Of course, since I began doing that there hasn't been a problem. Do the same with printer driver updates.
Anyway, call ScottTrade and howl! Tell them how many Macs are out there and why aren't they in Apple Developers Program?

OS X Lion - JAVA SCRIPT PROBLEM

I recently updated from Snow Leopard to OS X Lion. Now I seem to have a JAVA Script problem. Where do I start fixing this issue. I have checked updates etc etc but it seems to be updated. However, when I login to my web site backend, I have a problem. Any advice please?

Would you please write some more details? explain the problem and what web site backend you use. Thanks.

Maintenance script problem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for