Periodic scripts

[Matthew Seaman]

On Sun, Jun 08, 2003 at 01:11:16PM +0100, Santos wrote:
> Why there is a weekly script that rebuilds the locate database when:
> 
> >>> WARNING
> >>> Executing updatedb as root.  This WILL reveal all filenames
> >>> on your machine to all login users, which is a security risk.
> 
> 
> Is there a way to put dates on the periodic scripts report output for 
> those who redirect the reports to files instead of mail messages? There 
> is no easy way to tell what date a report belongs to.

Create a 'timestamp' periodic job, which does nothing except print out
the date at which it is invoked.  Save this as, say,
/etc/periodic/daily/000.timestamp to ensure that it gets run as the
first job.  The timestamp script should return exit code 1 to ensure
that the periodic script knowns it has produced output that should be
included in the report:

    #!/bin/sh
    #
    # Emit timestamp at start of daily periodic run

    date +"Daily run started at %H:%M %p %Z on %d/%m/%Y"
    exit 1

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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