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Diffstat (limited to 'usr.sbin/cron/doc/CHANGES')
| -rw-r--r-- | usr.sbin/cron/doc/CHANGES | 155 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 155 deletions
diff --git a/usr.sbin/cron/doc/CHANGES b/usr.sbin/cron/doc/CHANGES deleted file mode 100644 index 59f6803..0000000 --- a/usr.sbin/cron/doc/CHANGES +++ /dev/null @@ -1,155 +0,0 @@ -Vixie Cron Changes from V2 to V3 -Paul Vixie -29-Dec-1993 - -The crontab command now conforms to POSIX 1003.2. This means that when you -install it, if you have any "crontab" command lines floating around in shell -scripts (such as /etc/rc or /etc/rc.local), you will need to change them. - -I have integrated several changes made by BSDi for their BSD/386 operating -system; these were offerred to me before I started consulting for them, so -it is safe to say that they were intended for publication. Most notably, -the name of the cron daemon has changed from "crond" to "cron". This was -done for compatibility with 4.3BSD. Another change made for the same reason -is the ability to read in an /etc/crontab file which has an extra field in -each entry, between the time fields and the command. This field is a user -name, and it permits the /etc/crontab command to contain commands which are -to be run by any user on the system. /etc/crontab is not "installed" via -the crontab(1) command; it is automatically read at startup time and it will -be reread whenever it changes. - -I also added a "-e" option to crontab(1). Nine people also sent me diffs -to add this option, but I had already implemented it on my own. I actually -released an interrim version (V2.2, I think) for limited testing, and got a -chance to fix a bad security bug in the "-e" option thanks to XXX. - -The daemon used to be extraordinarily sloppy in its use of file descriptors. -A heck of a lot of them were left open in spawned jobs, which caused problems -for the daemon and also caused problems with the spawned jobs if they were -shell scripts since "sh" and "csh" have traditionally used hidden file -descriptors to pass information to subshells, and cron was causing them to -think they were subshells. If you had trouble with "sh" or "csh" scripts in -V2, chances are good that V3 will fix your problems. - -About a dozen people have reminded me that I forgot to initialize -"crontab_fd" in database.c. Keith Cantrell was the first, so he gets the -point. - -Steve Simmons reminded me that once an account has been deleted from the -system, "crontab -u USER -d" will not work. My solution is to suggest to -all of you that before you delete a user's account, you first delete that -user's crontab file if any. From cron's point of view, usernames can never -be treated as arbitrary strings. Either they are valid user names, or they -are not. I will not make an exception for the "-d" case, for security -reasons that I consider reasonable. It is trivial for a root user to delete -the entry by hand if necessary. - -Dan O'Neil reminded me that I forgot to reset "log_fd" in misc.c. A lot of -others also reminded me of this, but Dan gets the point. I didn't fix it -there, since the real bug was that it should have been open in the parent. - -Peter Kabal reminded me that I forgot to "#ifdef DEBUGGING" some code in -misc.c. Hans Trompert actually told me first, but Peter sent the patch so -he gets the point. - -Russell Nelson told me that I'd forgotten to "#include <syslog.h>" in misc.c, -which explains why a lot of other people complained that it wasn't using -syslog even when they configured it that way :-). Steve Simmons told me -first, though, so he gets the point. - -An interrim version of the daemon tried to "stat" every file before -executing it; this turned out to be a horribly bad idea since finding the -name of a file from a shell command is a hard job (that's why we have -shells, right?) I removed this bogus code. Dave Burgess gets the point. - -Dennis R. Conley sent a suggestion for MMDF systems, which I've added to the -comments in cron.h. - -Mike Heisler noted that I use comments in the CONVERSION file which are -documented as illegal in the man pages. Thanks, Mike. - -Irving Wolfe sent me some very cheerful changes for a NeXT system, but I -consider the system itself broken and I can't bring myself to #ifdef for -something as screwed up as this system seems to be. However, various others -did send me smaller patches which appear to have cause cron to build and run -correctly on (the latest) NeXT machines, with or without the "-posix" CFLAG. -Irving also asked for a per-job MAILTO, and this was finally added later when -I integrated the BSD/386 changes contributed by BSDi, and generalized some of -the parsing. - -Lots of folks complained that the autogenerated "Date:" header wasn't in -ARPA format. I didn't understand this -- either folks will use Sendmail and -not generate a Date: at all (since Sendmail will do it), or folks will use -something other than Sendmail which won't care about Date: formats. But -I've "fixed" it anyway... - -Several people suggested that "*" should be able to take a "/step". One person -suggested that "N/step" ought to mean "N-last/step", but that's stretching things -a bit far. "*/step" seems quite intuitive to me, so I've added it. Colin Plumb -sent in the first and most polite request for this feature. - -As with every release of Cron, BIND, and seemingly everything else I do, one -user stands out with the most critical but also the most useful analysis. -Cron V3's high score belongs to Peter Holzer, who sent in the nicest looking -patch for the "%" interpretation problem and also helped me understand a -tricky bit of badness in the "log_fd" problem. - -agulbra@flode.nvg.unit.no wins the honors for being the first to point out the -nasty security hole in "crontab -r". 'Nuff said. - -Several folks pointed out that log_it() needed to exist even if logging was -disabled. Some day I will create a tool that will compile a subsystem with -every possible combination and permutation of #ifdef options, but meanwhile -thanks to everybody. - -job_runqueue() was using storage after freeing it, since Jordan told me back -in 1983 that C let you do that, and I believed him in 1986 when I wrote all -this junk. Linux was the first to die from this error, and the Linux people -sent me the most amazing, um, collection of patches for this problem. Thanks -for all the fish. - -Jeremy Bettis reminded me that popen() isn't safe. I grabbed Ken Arnold's -version of popen/pclose from the ftpd and hacked it to taste. We're safe now, -from this at least. - -Branko Lankester sent me a very timely and helpful fix for a looming security -problem in my "crontab -e" implementation. - --------- - -Vixie Cron Changes from V1 to V2 -Paul Vixie -8-Feb-1988 - -Many changes were made in a rash of activity about six months ago, the exact -list of which is no longer clear in my memory. I know that V1 used a file -called POKECRON in /usr/spool/cron to tell it that it was time to re-read -all the crontab files; V2 uses the modtime the crontab directory as a flag to -check out the crontab files; those whose modtime has changed will be re-read, -and the others left alone. Note that the crontab(1) command will do a utimes -call to make sure the mtime of the dir changes, since the filename/inode will -often remain the same after a replacement and the mtime wouldn't change in -that case. - -8-Feb-88: made it possible to use much larger environment variable strings. - V1 allowed 100 characters; V2 allows 1000. This was needed for PATH - variables on some systems. Thanks to Toerless Eckert for this idea. - E-mail: UUCP: ...pyramid!fauern!faui10!eckert - -16-Feb-88: added allow/deny, moved /usr/spool/cron/crontabs to - /usr/lib/cron/tabs. allow and deny are /usr/lib/cron/{allow,deny}, - since the sysv naming for this depends on 'at' using the same - dir, which would be stupid (hint: use /usr/{lib,spool}/at). - -22-Feb-88: made it read the spool directory for crontabs and look each one - up using getpwnam() rather than reading all passwds with getpwent() - and trying to open each crontab. - -9-Dec-88: made it sync to :00 after the minute, makes cron predictable. - added logging to /var/cron/log. - -14-Apr-90: (actually, changes since December 1989) - fixed a number of bugs reported from the net and from John Gilmore. - added syslog per Keith Bostic. security features including not - being willing to run a command owned or writable by other than - the owner of the crontab 9not working well yet) |
