.\" Copyright (c) 1997 FreeBSD, Inc.
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.\"	$Id: periodic.8,v 1.1.1.1 1997/08/12 17:48:49 pst Exp $
.\"
.Dt periodic 8
.Os FreeBSD 3.0
.Sh NAME
.Nm periodic
.Nd run periodic system functions
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm periodic
.Ao
.Cm daily | weekly | monthly |
.Ar path Op path ...
.Ac
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
program is intended to be called by cron(8) to execute shell scripts
located in the specified directory.
.Pp
One, and only one, of the following arguments should 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 absolute path to a directory containing a set of executables to be run.
.El
.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 will be
ignored silently.
.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/crontab
.It Pa /etc/crontab
The
.Nm
program is typically called via entries in the system default cron table.
.It Pa /etc/cron.d
The top level directory containing
.Pa daily ,
.Pa weekly ,
and
.Pa monthly
subdirectories which contain standard system periodic executables.
.It Pa /etc/rc.conf
The
.Pa rc.conf
system registry contains a variable
.Va local_cron
which may be configured to specify additional top level standard
periodic directories, such as
.Pa /usr/local/etc/cron.d
and
.Pa /usr/X11R6/etc/cron.d .
.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   2>&1
.Dl 0      3       *       *       6       root    periodic weekly  2>&1
.Dl 0      5       1       *       *       root    periodic monthly 2>&1
.Pp
Additionally, the system registry will typically have a
.Va local_cron
variable reading:
.Dl local_cron="/usr/local/etc/cron.d /usr/X11R6/etc/cron.d" # cron script dirs.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr cron 8
.Xr crontab 5 ,
.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
.Xr sh 1 ,
.Rs
.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 <directory of files to execute>
No directory path argument was passed to
.Nm
to specify where the script fragments reside.
.It <directory> not found
Self explanatory.
.El
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
program first appeared in
.Fx 3.0 .
.Sh AUTHOR
.An Paul Traina Aq pst@FreeBSD.ORG .