FWIW, just so you don't think you're by yourself, I think your proposal is superior. What we're talking about here is a simple cron "database", and that's something the filesyastem's quite good at -- no scripts needed.
Those arguing in favor of making /etc/crontab automatically generated are the same people who think that people won't understand /etc/cron.d, and that /etc/cron.d is too unix-incompatible. 1) Making /etc/crontab auto-generated is at least as incompatible as /etc/cron.d, and it puts more of a burden on the user. Debian users already know about /etc/crontab, and expect to be able to modify it. If we go with /etc/cron.d, as far as the user's concerned, nothing changes -- principle of least surprise. 2) If you make /etc/crontab automatically generated, people new to Debian *will* still modify it, and then we'll have to field questions on debian-user. 3) With /etc/cron.d we can make the files in there conffiles (like /etc/init.d), and then when a user modifies them, they'll get immediate results, without having to remember to call some script (and many won't remember, they'll ask on debian-user why their changes didn't take effect). -- Rob Browning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> PGP fingerprint = E8 0E 0D 04 F5 21 A0 94 53 2B 97 F5 D6 4E 39 30 -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
