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.

Similar Messages

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

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.

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, 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)

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

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

Periodic Maintenance Scripts

I read this thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3136865&#3136865
but it is closed so I coldn't post an additional question.
In understand about how the 3 maintenance scripts are supposed to work (Thank you Dr. Smoke!), but for a variety of reasons I need to put my MacBook Pro to sleep at night. Last night, I set the Energy Saver options to wake up at 3:00 AM, having previously checked to see that the daily script was set to run at 3:15. The computer goes to sleep after one hour, so that should have given enough time for the script to run.
This morning the daily script had NOT run, and the Console log is filled with entried like this:
Mar 21 03:30:47 administrators-computer DirectoryService[49]: Active Directory DS Plugin: Kerberos Time Skew Too Large. Check Date/Time!\n
(There are no entries between 3:00 and 3:30). The computer was not connected to the network where the AD lives (that is at work). Also, this morning when I woke the computer up manually, the clock was set at 3:40.
I can continue to run the daily script by hand, but I would rather not. Any help will be appreciated.
Walt

Make your life simpler. There are some excellent alternatives that completely automate running the maintenance scripts for you. You'll find them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Macaroni - Shareware $8.00
Anacron - Freeware
PseudoAnacron - Freeware
These utilities check if the periodic maintenance scripts were run at their scheduled times, and if not runs them immediately. They assure the scripts are run when your computer is turned on so you needn't worry about scheduling the computer to wake up at a certain time.
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Overnight maintenance scripts

I am a big fan of MacJanitor as it is simple, uses what is already built in to Tiger, and does mess with any settings. I do shut down my mac overnight.
1.) If one doesn't use a 3rd party app to run these tasks, wasn't there an OS update that addressed something to the effect that if those files become to large or they haven't run, something will trigger them?
2.) Has anyone heard if the next OS version will finally allow some way to control this or perform them via built in Apple software?
Thanks!

baltwo wrote: "1) Yes. IIRC, the 10.4.4 update fixed the OS so that if the scheduled tasks didn't run at their scheduled time, they'd run when the machine restarted (or awoke from sleep)."This is wholly incorrect.
See my "Running the Mac OS X Maintenance Scripts" FAQ for all the advice you need on the scripts. In particular, the section "How the scripts are launched on a schedule" discusses the timer behavior under Tiger that have lead some to believe — incorrectly — that the scripts run "off schedule."
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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.

Export Maintenance Scripts from AWM?

Is there a way to export the Maintenance Scripts, like you can export dimensions and cubes to xml or something else?
I'm talking about the scripts that are not part of the workspaces tree, but below them.
If I'm missing something to explain myself, please tell me.
Thank you!

Maintenance Scripts are also called Build Processes in the OLAP API. The definitions of these scripts are contained in a view and may be accessed by the following query:
select * from all_cube_build_processes order by owner, build_process_name
This query is in the AWM Navigator Reports Folder, OLAP Dictionary Reports, All Build Processes.
Another way to get the definition of the Maintenance Script would be to download the View XML plugin from Oracle OLAP Downloads: Software & Samples
After installing the plugin in the AWM plugin directory, a new context menu item, "Plugin - View XML..." should appear for a maintenance script in the navigator. Invoking this menu item will display the XML for maintenance script which then can be copy pasted into a file which then can be imported using DBMS_CUBE.IMPORT_XML.
Ken Chin

Maintenance scripts

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