cron(8) mis-feature with @reboot long after system startup

[Doug Barton]

On 11/25/2011 00:12, Cy Schubert wrote:
> In message <20111125070241.GA7915 at DataIX.net>, Jason Hellenthal writes:
>> List,
>>
>> When using @reboot with cron you expect your proccesses to always start when 
>> the system boots up and only when the system boots. But long after the system
>>  in question had been booted, my @reboot processes ran again! after a (/etc/r
>> c.d/cron restart). This is normally fine and dandy until one of your @reboot 
>> jobs needs to contain a process that purges files "files that are already in 
>> use by a running daemon since the system has not rebooted" and becomes hazard
>> ous.
>>
>> So with that said... is there a way we could actually make this run @reboot o
>> nly ?
>>
>> Compare the system boottime (kern.boottime) to the current time and if it is 
>> greater than ?5 minutes? do not run on any @reboot's ? or add yet another ext
>> ension @boottime so it does not throw off current functionality ?
>>
>> Surely I could modify the scripts which do this but I find it unproductive an
>> d counter intuitive for the need to explain that @reboot means "When cron is 
>> restarted" even though the name means something completely opposite.
> 
> I don't see how cron could run reboot jobs again while running. It calls 
> run_reboot_jobs only during startup. Could it be possible that cron died on 
> your system and you restarted it?

Please read the OP again carefully.



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