Re: Should we add jitter to cron(8) ?

> On Nov 2, 2026, at 10:58 AM, Sulev-Madis Silber <freebsd-current-freebsd-org111@ketas.si.pri.ee> wrote:
> 
> On November 2, 2026 8:28:09 PM GMT+02:00, "Enji Cooper (yaneurabeya)" <yaneurabeya@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Nov 2, 2026, at 9:10 AM, Jamie Landeg-Jones <jamie@catflap.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Peter Jeremy <peterj@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> IMO, it would be useful to have a way of saying e.g. "run once an hour
>>>> but I don't care when within the hour".
>>> 
>>> I assume that the time within the hour would be the same each hour? If so,
>>> that would be useful.
>>> 
>>> But would than initial state random number be stored somewhere, or reset
>>> each time cron starts?
>> 
>> <2 cents> (deflated)
>> It would probably be better if the state was tracked at the system level instead of in the application itself.
>> 
>> As a bonus, employing jitter might improve overall system-level entropy, depending on how jobs are run and when, which could help cryptography some.
>> </2 cents>
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> -Enji
> 
> what if (embedded) system with read-only filesystem reboots?

Wouldn’t that suffer the same issues as cron-saved entropy data?
-Enji