crontab question involving cvsup

[Paul Schmehl]

--On Thursday, August 26, 2004 12:07:26 AM -0700 Joshua Tinnin 
<krinklyfig at spymac.com> wrote:

> OK, I have searched the archives, and I can't find that my question has
> been answered previously, but please forgive me if that's incorrect.
>
> I'm using (or rather trying to use) cron to update my ports tree daily.
> I've tried several different combinations without success, and lately
> this is what I have in my crontab file:
>
> /usr/local/bin/cvsup -g -L 2 /home/krinklyfig/supfiles/ports-supfile
> && /usr/local/bin/portindex && /usr/local/sbin/portsdb -u
>
> It runs as root once a day. What appears to be happening is that the
> cvsup is happening, but portindex is not, and because of the latter
> portsdb -u doesn't either. The reason I know cvsup is working is
> because portindex indicates that the ports tree has been updated if I
> run it manually later, but running portversion before manually running
> portindex will not indicate any changes. The cron log doesn't show
> anything but the commands being executed. So, my question is: is this
> type of command valid, or should each command be separate? Or is it not
> working for some other reason?
>
Just out of curiosity, why would you use cron rather than 
/etc/periodic/daily?

Paul Schmehl (pauls at utdallas.edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/