portsnap and updates using cron

[Norberto Meijome]

martin hudec wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> On Wed, Aug 31, 2005 at 08:54:31AM -0500 or thereabouts, Kevin Kinsey wrote:
> 
>>Not sure.  Check the logs, etc.  If you're familiar with ktrace,
>>kdump, etc., you could follow the program's progress if you
>>find no log information.
> 
> 
>   /var/log/cron reports me that cronjob was done. No I am not familiar
>   with ktrace, kdump etc.


man ktrace
man kdump

in a nutshell: ktrace shows the kernel calls that a process is 
executing. It creates a dump file which you can view with kdump. similar 
(better actually) than strace and whatever other ?trace found in linux.

> 
>   First, I tell my custom script (with environment set by PATH=) to call
>   portsnap fetch && portsnap update, but he is unable to fetch anything
>   at all, therefore I started to use portsnap cron and I hoped to be
>   able to fetch it.

then it seems it's a portsnap problem and not cron...get it working in 
your normal shell first and then focus on automating it. (btw, what's 
wrong with (cd /usr/ports/ ; make update)  , or a cvsup cmd line?)