Subject: Re: FreeBSD's "periodic" script.
To: Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.net>
From: Chris Jones <chris@cjones.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 03/07/2000 11:05:48
Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.net> writes:

> > Basically you've got a script 'periodic' and a directory tree
> > /etc/periodic/{daily|weekly|monthly} which houses scripts named according
> > to a standard of {xxx}foo where xxx is an integer that determines the
> > order in which scripts get executed.
> 
> Personally, I really hate the {xxx}foo style of naming things,
> because it makes stuff a pain to enable and disable. I'd prefer to
> see a configuration file which says which scripts get run and in
> what order.

That's a good point, and one I'd actually be inclined to agree with.
The {xxx}foo style is very SysV-ish, and (as people here are prone to
point out) we're not SysV.  (Please, no flames on this; this has been
hashed and re-hashed in multiple forums before.)

The question on the floor seems to be how to make a flexible system
that will run scripts consecutively (unlike how cron handles it).  But
it needs to be easy (and intuitive) to turn scripts on and off without
totally removing them.

I'll look at Simon Gerraty's tools sometime today, I hope.

Chris

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------chris@cjones.org
Chris Jones                                          cjones@honors.montana.edu
           Mad scientist at large
"Is this going to be a stand-up programming session, sir, or another bug hunt?"