On Saturday 17 April 2010 10:47:15 Mick wrote: > On Friday 16 April 2010 22:25:47 Alan McKinnon wrote: > > On Friday 16 April 2010 20:29:27 Dale wrote: > > > Alan McKinnon wrote: > > > > On Thursday 15 April 2010 02:58:15 Matt Harrison wrote: > > > >> I apologise if this has come twice, it didn't appear to post > > > >> correctly first time, not even on the archives. > > > >> > > > >> Its been happening for a while but I haven't got round to find out > > > >> why, but every so often (anything between a week or an hour) > > > >> vixie-cron just stops. There's nothing in the logs, the service just > > > >> stops. > > > >> > > > >> I have no idea where to start looking for a culprit so I'm hoping > > > >> someone here has some good ideas :) > > > >> > > > >> thanks in advance > > > >> > > > >> Matt > > > > > > > > You probably don't want to hear this, but: > > > > > > > > vixie-cron is problematic in the extreme. I have endless hassle with > > > > it's weird behaviours. > > > > > > > > Use a different cron daemon. > > > > > > I am using vixie as well. It was in the install guide many years ago. > > > What all would have to be changed to switch to fcron? I think some > > > packages "detect" which cron you have installed and put things in the > > > proper place for cron jobs to run. I could be wrong on that since it > > > has been a while since I noticed packages doing this. > > > > emerge -C vixie-cron && emerge <other cron of your choice> > > > > You might have to tweak crontabs. > > > > I have come to detest with a passion every piece of software written or > > inspired by Paul Vixie. It took 10-15 years to get bind into a shape > > where > > > > it takes less than 20 minutes to start here, it's low, buggy and > > performance is pathetic. dhcp is just way too complex for my liking, ... > > > > ... and as for vixie-cron: When software doesn't act like it's supposed > > to, breaks in horrible ways without giving me any clue (like, "cron > > restart" > > > > works with no known init scripts on any platform I have) and instead > > says "cron restarted [OK]", which brings down 5000 Cisco devices as as > > a nasty side effect, and causes a Severity 0 committee to be called, > > twice, then that software's remaining life span on my boxes is measured > > in > > milliseconds :-) > > > > rant over > > Blimey! That sounds like horribly_broken! > > Which cron do you recommend for a desktop?
Strangely enough, I'd tell folk to use vixie-cron if it's already working for them and they know it. I don't see the point in advising someone to switch a package that is working well for them and doing it's job. Most folk let cron be installed then they never touch it again, or add at most a few entries. Everything they need or want to be done is covered with the default /etc/cron.*/*. Why change it? Besides, they know how to work vixie- cron. But if they are run into problems or weird errors (like the OP where the thing just dies), then fcron is good. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
