man
5 ANACRONTAB
ANACRONTAB(5) File Formats ANACRONTAB(5)
NAME
/etc/anacrontab - configuration file for Anacron
DESCRIPTION
The /etc/anacrontab configuration file describes the jobs controlled by
anacron(8). It can contain three types of lines: job-description
lines, environment assignments, or empty lines.
Job-description lines can have the following format:
period in days delay in minutes job-identifier command
The period in days variable specifies the frequency of execution of a
job in days. This variable can be represented by an integer or a macro
(@daily, @weekly, @monthly), where @daily denotes the same value as the
integer 1, @weekly the same as 7, and @monthly specifies that the job
is run once a month, independent on the length of the month.
The delay in minutes variable specifies the number of minutes anacron
waits, if necessary, before executing a job. This variable is repre-
sented by an integer where 0 means no delay.
The job-identifier variable specifies a unique name of a job which is
used in the log files.
The command variable specifies the command to execute. The command can
either be a command such as ls /proc >> /tmp/proc or a command to exe-
cute a custom script.
Environment assignment lines can have the following format:
VAR=VALUE
Any spaces around VAR are removed. No spaces around VALUE are allowed
(unless you want them to be part of the value). The specified assign-
ment takes effect from the next line until the end of the file, or to
the next assignment of the same variable.
The START_HOURS_RANGE variable defines an interval (in hours) when
scheduled jobs can be run. In case this time interval is missed, for
example, due to a power down, then scheduled jobs are not executed that
day.
The RANDOM_DELAY variable denotes the maximum number of minutes that
will be added to the delay in minutes variable which is specified for
each job. A RANDOM_DELAY set to 12 would therefore add, randomly, be-
tween 0 and 12 minutes to the delay in minutes for each job in that
particular anacrontab. When set to 0, no random delay is added.
If MAILTO is defined (and non-empty), mail is sent to the specified ad-
dress, otherwise, system user is used.
If MAILFROM is defined (and non-empty), it is used as the envelope
sender address, otherwise, system user is used.
(Note: Both MAILFROM and MAILTO variables are expanded, so setting them
as in the following example works as expected: MAIL-
FROM=cron-$USER@cron.com ($USER is replaced by the system user) )
Empty lines are either blank lines, line containing white spaces only,
or lines with white spaces followed by a '#' followed by an arbitrary
comment.
You can continue a line onto the next line by adding a '\' at the end
of it.
In case you want to disable Anacron, add a line with 0anacron which is
the name of the script running the Anacron into the
/etc/cron.hourly/jobs.deny file.
EXAMPLE
This example shows how to set up an Anacron job similar in functional-
ity to /etc/crontab which starts all regular jobs between 6:00 and 8:00
only. A RANDOM_DELAY which can be 30 minutes at the most is specified.
Jobs will run serialized in a queue where each job is started only af-
ter the previous one is finished.
# environment variables
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
RANDOM_DELAY=30
# Anacron jobs will start between 6am and 8am.
START_HOURS_RANGE=6-8
# delay will be 5 minutes + RANDOM_DELAY for cron.daily
1 5 cron.daily nice run-parts /etc/cron.daily
7 0 cron.weekly nice run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
@monthly 0 cron.monthly nice run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
SEE ALSO
anacron(8), crontab(1)
The Anacron README file.
AUTHOR
Itai Tzur <itzur@actcom.co.il>
Currently maintained by Pascal Hakim <pasc@(debian.org|redellipse.
net)>.
For Fedora, maintained by Marcela Malaova <mmaslano@redhat.com>.
cronie 2012-11-22 ANACRONTAB(5)