Scheduling Recurring Jobs with cron:

[root@master ~]# systemctl status crond (Installed and enabled by default)

[root@master ~]# crontab -e (vi editor will be started)
#comment line (optional)
Minutes Hours Day-of-Month Month Day-of-Week Command

� * for always
� A number
� x-y for a range
� x,y for lists
� */x to indicate an i nterval of x (*/7 in the minutes column will run a job
exactly every seven minutes)
� Three-letter abbreviations can be used for both month and wee kdays.
� If the command contains an unescaped(%) that % will be treated as a newline, and
everything after the % will be fed to the command on stdin.

Ex:
0 9 2 2 * /usr/local/bin/yearly_backup
*/7 9-16 * Jul 5 echo "Chime"
58 23 * * 1-5 tar cf /root/etc.tar /etc
[root@master ~]# crontab -l (List the jobs for the current
user)
[root@master ~]# crontab -r (Remove all jobs for the current
users)
[root@master ~]# crontab -e -u abeer (Root can manage the jobs for
another user)
[root@master ~]# crontab (stdin will be used)
[root@master ~]# crontab <file_name> (Remove all jobs, and replace with
the jobs read from
<file_name>)
Note:
- If the commands run from a cron job produce any output to either stdout or stderr
that is not redirected, the crond daemon will attempt to email that output to the
user owning that job.

[root@master ~]# vim /etc/crontab (Don't touch this file)

==========================================
Scheduling System cron Jobs:
[root@master ~]# vim /etc/crontab (not recommended to be used to schedule
jobs)
[root@master ~]# ls -d /etc/cron.* (predefined jobs that run every hour,
day, week, and month)

Note:
anacron :run the task even if the machine is not work
- Make sure to make any scripts you place in these directories executable.
- The /etc/anacrontab file will make sure that important jobs will always be run,
and not skipped accidentally because the system was turned off or hibernating.
==========================================
Managing Temporary Files:
- In the past. system administrators used a tool called tmpwatch to remove old,
unused tmp files.
- In RHEL7 systemd will start systemd�tmpfiles-setup which is resposible for tmp
files.
- systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service will be started 15 minutes after systemd has
started, and then once every 24 hours afterwards.
- Files will be considered unused if timestamps(atime, mtime and ctime)are older
than the systemd�tmpfiles age configuration.
- The stat command can be run on a file to see the values of all three of its time
stamps.

[root@master ~]# systemd-tmpfiles --remove

[root@master ~]# vim /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf (should not be edited by
system administrator)
d /run/systemd/seats 0755 root root -
D /home/student 0700 student student 1d
L /run/fstablink - root root - /etc/fstab

- /tmp is under systemd-tmpfiles control. To override the upstream settings:

[root@master ~]# cp /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf /etc/tmpfiles.d/
Then change the interval from 10d to 5d.
[root@master ~]# systemd-tmpfiles --clean tmp.conf (Test if systemd accepts the
new configuration)
==========================================
Best wishes:
Abeer :)