On Tue, 29 Feb 2000, Ben Collins wrote: > Correct. "at" is an addition to cron, that makes sure that cron jobs > get run regardless of whether the machine was off during the time it > was supposed to excute the given job. If your box is up 24/7, all you > need is cron.
You're overlooking at's ability to be used as a one-time scheduler. Cron is really intended to be used for regular tasks. at is the sort of thing you can use to do things once, for example, "I am going to be on vacation on the 23rd, so I'll use at to mail the report that people are accustomed to seeing from me that day" or "Maintenance is shutting down the building tonight, I need to remember to power down all the machines at 9:00." Cron isn't really suited to this sort of thing. Yes, you can use cron for it, but why? Just use at.