.\" Copyright (c) 1997 FreeBSD, Inc. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd August 13, 1997 .Os FreeBSD .Dt PERIODIC 8 .Sh NAME .Nm periodic .Nd run periodic system functions .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Ar directory Ns No ... .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm program is intended to be called by cron(8) to execute shell scripts located in the specified directory. .Pp One or more of the following arguments must be specified: .Bl -tag -width Fl .It Cm daily Perform the standard daily periodic executable run. This usually occurs early in the morning (local time). .It Cm weekly Perform the standard weekly periodic executable run. This usually occurs on Sunday mornings. .It Cm monthly Perform the standard monthly periodic executable run. This usually occurs on the first day of the month. .It Ar path An arbitrary directory containing a set of executables to be run. .El .Pp If an argument is an absolute directory name it is used as is, otherwise it is searched for under .Pa /etc/periodic and any other directories specified by the .Va local_periodic setting in .Xr periodic.conf 5 (see below). .Pp The .Nm program will run each executable file in the directory or directories specified. If a file does not have the executable bit set, it is silently ignored. .Pp Each script is required to exit with one of the following values: .Bl -tag -width XXXX .It 0 The script has produced nothing notable in it's output. The .Va _show_success variable controls the masking of this output. .It 1 The script has produced some notable information in it's output. The .Va _show_info variable controls the masking of this output. .It 2 The script has produced some warnings due to invalid configuration settings. The .Va _show_badconfig variable controls the masking of this output. .It >2 The script has produced output that must not be masked. .El .Pp If the relevant variable (where .Ar is the base directory in which the script resides) is set to .Dq NO in .Pa periodic.conf , .Nm will mask the script output. If the variable is not set to either .Dq YES or .Dq NO , it will be given a default value as described in .Xr periodic.conf 5 . .Pp All remaining script output is delivered based on the value of the .Va _output setting. .Pp If this is set to a path name (beginning with a .Dq / Character), output is simply logged to that file. .Xr newsyslog 8 knows about the files .Pa /var/log/daily.log , .Pa /var/log/weekly.log and .Pa /var/log/monthly.log , and if they exist, it will rotate them at the appropriate times. These are therefore good values if you wish to log .Nm output. .Pp If the .Va _output value does not begin with a .Dq / and is not empty, it is assumed to contain a list of email addresses, and the output is mailed to them. .Pp If .Va _output is not set or is empty, output is sent to standard output. .Sh ENVIRONMENT The .Nm command sets the .Ev PATH environment to include all standard system directories, but no additional directories, such as .Pa /usr/local/bin . If executables are added which depend upon other path components, each executable must be responsible for configuring its own appropriate environment. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/periodic .It Pa /etc/crontab The .Nm program is typically called via entries in the system default cron table. .It Pa /etc/periodic The top level directory containing .Pa daily , .Pa weekly , and .Pa monthly subdirectories which contain standard system periodic executables. .It Pa /etc/defaults/periodic.conf The .Pa periodic.conf system registry contains variables that control the behaviour of .Nm and the standard .Pa daily , .Pa weekly , and .Pa monthly scripts. .It Pa /etc/periodic.conf This file contains local overrides for the default periodic configuration. .El .Sh EXAMPLES The system crontab should have entries for .Nm similar to the following example: .Pp .Dl # do daily/weekly/monthly maintenance .Dl 0 2 * * * root periodic daily .Dl 0 3 * * 6 root periodic weekly .Dl 0 5 1 * * root periodic monthly .Pp The .Pa /etc/defaults/periodic.conf system registry will typically have a .Va local_periodic variable reading: .Pp .Dl local_periodic="/usr/local/etc/periodic /usr/X11R6/etc/periodic" .Pp To log .Nm output instead of receiving it as email, add the following lines to .Pa /etc/periodic.conf : .Pp .Dl daily_output=/var/log/daily.log .Dl weekly_output=/var/log/weekly.log .Dl monthly_output=/var/log/monthly.log .Pp To only see important information from daily periodic jobs, add the following lines to .Pa /etc/periodic.conf : .Pp .Dl daily_show_success=NO .Dl daily_show_info=NO .Dl daily_show_badconfig=NO .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr sh 1 , .Xr crontab 5 , .Xr periodic.conf 5 , .Xr cron 8 , .Xr newsyslog 8 .Sh DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is 0 on success and 1 if the command fails for one of the following reasons: .Bl -diag .It usage: periodic No directory path argument was passed to .Nm to specify where the script fragments reside. .It not found Self explanatory. .El .Sh HISTORY The .Nm program first appeared in .Fx 3.0 . .Sh AUTHORS .An Paul Traina Aq pst@FreeBSD.org .An Brian Somers Aq brian@Awfulhak.org