Improve cron(8)

[John D. Hendrickson and Sara Darnell]

Eitan Adler wrote:
> On 22 June 2014 11:54, John D. Hendrickson and Sara Darnell
> <johnandsara2 at cox.net> wrote:
>> Eitan Adler wrote:
>>> +arch since hackers@ seems to be silent.
>>>
>>> On 11 June 2014 23:56, Tomek Wałaszek <tmwalaszek at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>> I saw on the FreeBSD Ideas page topic about cron :).
>>>> I've started updating the 'original' FreeBSD cron from sources to vixi
>>>> cron
>>>> 4.1. I think (well I hope :P) most of the features that were done in
>>>> FreeBSD cron are now ported into vixi cron 4.1, there are unfortunately
>>>> some missing features at the moment:
>>>> - @every_second - this need to be done
>>>> - -s and -o, in vixi cron 4.1 daylight time switches are enabled by
>>>> default, at the moment there is no -s and -o options. So you need to
>>>> remove
>>>> '-s' from the cron rc script
>>>>
>>>> I've also added one feature from OpenBSD, crontab is poking cron using
>>>> unix-domain socket so we don't need to have suid on crontab.
>>>>
>>>> Path is in the attachment. I'm testing it on my FreeBSD box and it looks
>>>> good but anyway don't try it on production machines :).
>>>>
>>>> After the installation we have to do a few things:
>>>> - Add crontab group
>>>> - Change group to crontab on /var/cron/tabs
>>>> - Add sticky bit on /var/cron/tabs
>>>> - Add group write permissions on /var/cron/tabs
>>>>
>>>> This is still work in progress but if someone could have a look on this
>>>> and
>>>> give me some feedback it would be great.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Tomasz Walaszek
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers
>>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to
>>>> "freebsd-hackers-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> you should up the version number or start your own renamed application
> ...
> 
> I don't know how to react to this message.  You just told a potential
> contributor not to contribute since he was not the founder of the
> project.  That goes against everything that open source is about.
> 
> 

i think i read the origional too quickly.  Tomek appears to say BAS 
cron was before Vixie Cron i didn't see that.

however i'll go ahead and repeat it.  contributing does not mean 
altering the way software other people are using works, like sed(1) or 
chron(1)

i hope Not expect to all have to revisit years back, maybe many 
scripts and redo old scripts because one person wishes new features 
which WOULD cause problems: user permission and security features done 
in a different way and which require socket software

i did not discourage a contribution.  i asked the project retain a 
different name if the new features cause problems with critical 
software.  anyone would be free to use the different name or rename it 
without conflicting with existing situations.  i'm sure you know some 
software tries to use cron for system maintenance both in scripts and 
sometimes from C code.

of course he should edit and recompile bsd things i'd like to as well 
i have not got the chance

issue was naming and sharing work, ie, which branch or trunk is 
checked out when one installs bsd , so to speak