NAME

cron - clock daemon

SYNOPSIS

/etc/cron

HP-UX COMPATIBILITY

Level: HP-UX/STANDARD

Origin: System V

Native Language Support:
8−bit filenames.

Remarks: Not supported on the Integral PC. 

DESCRIPTION

Cron executes commands at specified dates and times.  Regularly scheduled commands can be specified according to instructions found in crontab files; users can submit their own crontab file via the crontab command.  Commands which are to be executed only once may be submitted via the at command.  Since cron never exits, it should only be executed once.  This is best done by running cron from the initialization process through the file /etc/rc (see init(1M)). 

Cron only examines crontab files and at command files during process initialization and when a file changes.  This reduces the overhead of checking for new or changed files at regularly scheduled intervals. 

FILES

/usr/lib/cron main cron directory

/usr/lib/cron/log accounting information

/usr/spool/cron spool area

SEE ALSO

at(1), crontab(1), sh(1), init(1M). 

DIAGNOSTICS

A history of all actions taken by cron are recorded in /usr/lib/cron/log. 

Hewlett-Packard  —  last mod. May 11, 2021