cron package

[userosx]

I have a single cron job that I’d like to include with instaDMG. I’m familiar with cron and how to configure it, but I don’t know how to automate it so that I can use it in a package. I’ve created many packages for our instaDMG build, but am at a loss for cron… Any advice on packaging a cron job would be much appreciated. Hopefully I’m not missing something obvious here… /hopes

The thought occurred to me to use launchd, but having created only one LaunchDaemon (in my entire life), I’m not entirely sure. Basically, I need to run a script once a day, so theoretically cron or launchd would work, and the latter would be easier to package.

[Patrick Fergus]

You’d only need to package up a crontab (/etc/crontab) and the script itself, I believe. I’m trying my best to avoid cron in Leopard and beyond, but I know that our cron-initiated distribution of the screen saver that runs over the login window in Panther and Tiger are just those two items.

LaunchD would offer a huge advantage over cron that you could guarantee that the script would run every day, even if the machine was off when the appointed time passed. See Lingon:

[url]http://tuppis.com/lingon/[/url]

to make your LaunchD writing simpler.

– Patrick

[userosx]

I have not heard of lingon before… All I can say is… This looks AWESOME! Far less tedious than looking through man pages attempting to decipher the appropriate syntax for launchd. THANK YOU! 😛

[Author]

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