Upon further investigation, I've come to the answer. Based on the behavior exhibited in my logs, the notation:
-40 6,18 * * * /path/to/some/script Runs that script once every minute from 6:00 - 6:40, and then once every minute from 18:00 - 18:40. So, I guess it assumes a leading 0 and works as a range indication. YIKES! This definitely explains the results I got. Thanks, Michael On Wednesday 08 September 2004 10:06 am, William Sutton wrote: > Hmm, well, a couple observations: > 1. Your cron entry is deficient in terms of the number of parameters (see > http://www.pantz.org/os/linux/programs/cron.shtml for a decent explanation > of how they layout) so either you condensed it when you posted the entry > or Kcron messed up (my guess is more likely Kcron) > 2. I don't think the leading "-" is a valid entry. I know it's used as a > range delimiter, but when I ran a sample script via vcron, it got ignored: > > script: > ----- > corran:~$ cat test.pl > #!/usr/bin/perl > use File::Slurp; > > my $date = `date`; > my $file = "/home/william/test_file.txt"; > > write_file($file, $date); > ----- > > crontab: > ----- > corran:~$ crontab -l > # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall. > # (/tmp/crontab.19703 installed on Wed Sep 8 08:52:35 2004) > # (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $) > -1 * * * * /home/william/test.pl > ----- > > and the test file written: > ----- > corran:~$ ll test_file.txt > -rw-r--r-- 1 william users 29 Sep 8 09:01 test_file.txt > ----- > > Basically I think Kcron is broken :) > > William > > On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Michael Hrivnak wrote: > > What does it mean for the minute parameter in a crontab entry to begin > > with a "-" ? > > > > for example, Kcron created this... > > > > -10 2,14 /path/to/some/script > > > > The script in question calls rsync. I've been having a problem recently > > that a large number of instances of rsync get started on this client, > > along with an equivalent number of instances of rsync and sshd on the > > server side, resulting in a DoS. When I run the script on its own > > though, it runs fine. > > > > Any clues? > > > > Michael -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
