PERIODIC(8) System Manager's Manual PERIODIC(8)
NAME
periodic - run periodic system functions
SYNOPSIS
periodic directory ...
DESCRIPTION
The periodic program is intended to be called by cron(8) to execute shell
scripts located in the specified directory.
One or more of the following arguments must be specified:
daily Perform the standard daily periodic executable run. This usu-
ally occurs early in the morning (local time).
weekly Perform the standard weekly periodic executable run. This usu-
ally occurs on Sunday mornings.
monthly Perform the standard monthly periodic executable run. This usu-
ally occurs on the first day of the month.
path An arbitrary directory containing a set of executables to be
run.
If an argument is an absolute directory name it is used as is, otherwise
it is searched for under /etc/periodic and any other directories speci-
fied by the local_periodic setting in periodic.conf(5) (see below).
The periodic program will run each executable file in the directory or
directories specified. If a file does not have the executable bit set,
it is silently ignored.
Each script is required to exit with one of the following values:
0 The script has produced nothing notable in its output. The
<basedir>_show_success variable controls the masking of this out-
put.
1 The script has produced some notable information in its output.
The <basedir>_show_info variable controls the masking of this out-
put.
2 The script has produced some warnings due to invalid configuration
settings. The <basedir>_show_badconfig variable controls the mask-
ing of this output.
>2 The script has produced output that must not be masked.
If the relevant variable (where <basedir> is the base directory in which
the script resides) is set to ``NO'' in periodic.conf, periodic will mask
the script output. If the variable is not set to either ``YES'' or
``NO'', it will be given a default value as described in
periodic.conf(5).
All remaining script output is delivered based on the value of the
<basedir>_output setting.
If this is set to a path name (beginning with a `/' character), output is
simply logged to that file.
If the <basedir>_output value does not begin with a `/' and is not empty,
it is assumed to contain a list of email addresses, and the output is
mailed to them.
If <basedir>_output is not set or is empty, output is sent to standard
output.
ENVIRONMENT
The periodic command sets the PATH environment to include all standard
system directories, but no additional directories, such as
/usr/local/bin. If executables are added which depend upon other path
components, each executable must be responsible for configuring its own
appropriate environment.
FILES
/etc/crontab The periodic program is typically called via entries
in the system default cron(8) table.
/etc/periodic The top level directory containing daily, weekly, and
monthly subdirectories which contain standard system
periodic executables.
/etc/defaults/periodic.conf
The periodic.conf system registry contains variables
that control the behaviour of periodic and the stan-
dard daily, weekly, and monthly scripts.
/etc/periodic.conf This file contains local overrides for the default
periodic configuration.
EXAMPLES
The system crontab should have entries for periodic similar to the fol-
lowing example:
# do daily/weekly/monthly maintenance
0 2 * * * root periodic daily
0 3 * * 6 root periodic weekly
0 5 1 * * root periodic monthly
The /etc/defaults/periodic.conf system registry will typically have a
local_periodic variable reading:
local_periodic="/usr/local/etc/periodic /usr/X11R6/etc/periodic"
To log periodic output instead of receiving it as email, add the follow-
ing lines to /etc/periodic.conf:
daily_output=/var/log/daily.log
weekly_output=/var/log/weekly.log
monthly_output=/var/log/monthly.log
To only see important information from daily periodic jobs, add the fol-
lowing lines to /etc/periodic.conf:
daily_show_success=NO
daily_show_info=NO
daily_show_badconfig=NO
SEE ALSO
sh(1), crontab(5), periodic.conf(5), cron(8)
DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is 0 on success and 1 if the command fails for one of the
following reasons:
usage: periodic <directory of files to execute> No directory path argu-
ment was passed to periodic to specify where the script fragments reside.
<directory> not found Self explanatory.
BUGS
Since one specifies information about a directory using shell variables
containing the string, <basedir>, <basedir> must only contain characters
that are valid within a sh(1) variable name, alphanumerics and under-
scores, and the first character may not be numeric.
AUTHORS
Paul Traina <pst@FreeBSD.org>
Brian Somers <brian@Awfulhak.org>
BSD November 28, 2001 BSD