Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION 04-08-2006 Installation Manual page 422

2.
3.
4.
Custom settings can be made in ~/.profile or in ~/.bashrc. To ensure the correct
processing of these files, it is necessary to copy the basic settings from /etc/skel/
.profile or /etc/skel/.bashrc into the home directory of the user. It is rec-
ommended to copy the settings from /etc/skel following an update. Execute the
following shell commands to prevent the loss of personal adjustments:
mv ~/.bashrc ~/.bashrc.old
cp /etc/skel/.bashrc ~/.bashrc
mv ~/.profile ~/.profile.old
cp /etc/skel/.profile ~/.profile
Then copy personal adjustments back from the *.old files.
22.1.2 The cron Package
If you want to run commands regularly and automatically in the background at predefined
times, cron is the traditional tool to use. cron is driven by specially formatted time tables.
Some of of them come with the system and users can write their own tables if needed.
The cron tables are located in /var/spool/cron/tabs. /etc/crontab serves
as a systemwide cron table. Enter the username to run the command directly after the
time table and before the command. In
root is entered. Package-specific tables, located in /etc/cron.d, have the same
format. See the cron man page (man cron).
Example 22.1 Entry in /etc/crontab
1-59/5 * * * *
You cannot edit /etc/crontab by calling the command crontab -e. This file
must be loaded directly into an editor, modified, then saved.
A number of packages install shell scripts to the directories /etc/cron.hourly,
/etc/cron.daily, /etc/cron.weekly, and /etc/cron.monthly, whose
execution is controlled by /usr/lib/cron/run-crons. /usr/lib/cron/
422 Installation and Administration
~/.profile
/etc/bash.bashrc
~/.bashrc
root test -x /usr/sbin/atrun && /usr/sbin/atrun
Example 22.1, "Entry in /etc/crontab" (page 422),