Bug#799088: popularity-contest: please add PERSISTENT=true to the new crontab

[Alexandre Detiste]

Package: popularity-contest
Version: =1.64
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch

Hi,

Could you please add a "PERSISTENT=true" environment
variable to the new generated crontabs ?

When the cron-daemon is provided by 'systemd-cron' alternative
implementation, this got translated to "Persistent=true"
in the generated systemd timer.

That gives this crontab anacron-like powers:
if the timer elaspsed while the system was down,
the job is executed after next boot.

By the way, the "Suggests: anacron" is not applicable anymore,
as anacron doesn't process the jobs in /etc/cron.d .

Vixie's cron will ignore this environment variable.

Greets,

--- popularity-contest  2015-09-15 20:43:23.714645204 +0200
+++ popularity-contest  2015-09-15 20:44:29.364004449 +0200
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 SHELL=/bin/sh
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
+PERSISTENT=true
 56 18 * * *   roottest -x /etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest &&
/etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest --crond



-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (450, 'unstable'), (400, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.1.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/6 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_BE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_BE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Bug#799088: popularity-contest: please add PERSISTENT=true to the new crontab

[Bill Allombert]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 08:52:34PM +0200, Alexandre Detiste wrote:
> Package: popularity-contest
> Version: =1.64
> Severity: wishlist
> Tags: patch
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Could you please add a "PERSISTENT=true" environment
> variable to the new generated crontabs ?
> 
> When the cron-daemon is provided by 'systemd-cron' alternative
> implementation, this got translated to "Persistent=true"
> in the generated systemd timer.
> 
> That gives this crontab anacron-like powers:
> if the timer elaspsed while the system was down,
> the job is executed after next boot.

Hello Alexandre,

/etc/cron.d/popularity-contest is not handled by anacron (as you note),
it is /etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest which is. 
So it would be more consistent to add 'anacron-like power' to
/etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest than to 
/etc/cron.d/popularity-contest, otherwise the same job will be run
twice at boot.

> By the way, the "Suggests: anacron" is not applicable anymore,
> as anacron doesn't process the jobs in /etc/cron.d .

Of course it is still applicable, /etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest
is still here.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. 

Imagine a large red swirl here. 

Bug#799088: popularity-contest: please add PERSISTENT=true to the new crontab

[Alexandre Detiste]

Hi,

I had mentaly read the crontab as:
56 18 * * *   roottest -x /usr/bin/popularity-contest && 
/usr/bin/popularity-contest --crond

Now I feel a little dumb & confused ;-)

Le mardi 15 septembre 2015, 22:22:00 Bill Allombert a écrit :
> Hello Alexandre,
> 
> /etc/cron.d/popularity-contest is not handled by anacron (as you note),
> it is /etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest which is. 
> So it would be more consistent to add 'anacron-like power' to
> /etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest than to 
> /etc/cron.d/popularity-contest, otherwise the same job will be run
> twice at boot.

This is right, now I'm still wondering how the cron.daily & the new crontab
interract... wouldn't it need some locking to avoid that popcon
run twice at the same time if someone is unlucky ?

This one is maybe a real bug.

The whole /etc/cron.daily already has anacron-like behaviour
since systemd 212+ landed in Debian.

> > By the way, the "Suggests: anacron" is not applicable anymore,
> > as anacron doesn't process the jobs in /etc/cron.d .
> 
> Of course it is still applicable, /etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest
> is still here.

I thought it was gone.
 
> Cheers,

Cheers