>Synopsis: crontab(5) clarification: "~" field is evaluated once at
>install time
>Category: documentation system amd64
>Environment:
System : OpenBSD 7.5
Details : OpenBSD 7.5-current (GENERIC) #150: Wed Jun 26
20:30:54 MDT 2024
dera...@amd64.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC
Architecture: OpenBSD.amd64
Machine : amd64
>Description:
The crontab(5) manpage could be more explicit about the fact
that a "~" char only gets evaluated to a random value once, at
table install time.
From the EXAMPLES section:
# run hourly at a random time within the first 30 minutes of the hour
0~30 * * * * /usr/libexec/spamd-setup
"run hourly at a random time" could me interpreted as "run
hourly, with a different random minute every hour".
This is not the case and may be unexpected for some users.
>How-To-Repeat:
# some initial random minute, repeating itself every hour
~ * * * * date >> /tmp/LOG
>Fix:
Just clarify that "~" will be evaluated at table install time
and then be reused.
Thanks,
--Kor
