]> Morgan N. Sandquist

morgan@pipeline.com

Gary Meyer

gary@meyer.net

Developer Lauri Watts

lauri@kde.org

Reviewer 2000 Morgan N. Sandquist &FDLNotice; 2003-09-16 3.1.91 &kcron; is an application that schedules programs to be run. KDE tdeadmin KCron cron crontab scheduler &kcron; is an application for scheduling programs to run in the background. It is a graphical user interface to cron, the &UNIX; system scheduler. Don't forget to tell your system to start the crond cron daemon first, or &kcron; won't work. When &kcron; starts you will see a summarized view of existing scheduled tasks and associated environment variables. If you are running as the root user, you will see these items for all users on the computer as well as the system scheduled tasks. Each of the folders can be expanded and contracted. &kcron; at start up. &kcron; at start up. Scheduled tasks appear under a Tasks folder. For each scheduled task, the following are displayed: Name Name to identify the scheduled task. Value Program file and parameters. Description Natural language description of scheduled task. If a task has been disabled, no program file and parameters will appear, and the description will be disabled. Environment variables appear under a Variables folder. For each environment variable, the following are displayed: Name Variable name. Value Variable value. Description Natural language description of variable. Environment variables appearing here will override any existing environment variable for all scheduled tasks. If an environment variable has been disabled, no value will appear and the description will be disabled. &kcron; main window &kcron; main window To create a new scheduled task, first select the Tasks folder. Then select Edit New... . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose New..., or simply press CtrlN. Edit Task dialog. Edit Task dialog Comment Enter a description of the task to schedule. Program Enter the name of the program. You can specify either a relative path or absolute path. If you want to look up the program, click Browse.... Enabled To enable or disable the task, select or de-select Enabled. Silent Turns off logging of the command and the output from the command. Months Select the months during which the task is to be scheduled. Days of the Month Select the days of the month on which the task is to be scheduled. Days of the Week Select the days of the week on which the task is to be scheduled. Daily If you want to schedule the task to run daily, select Run every day. Hours Select the hours on which the task is to be scheduled. Minutes Select the minute at which the task is to be scheduled. &kcron; does not support scheduling tasks at smaller than five minute intervals. OK Completes the creation of this task. Cancel Cancels the creation of this task. If you select both days of the month, and days of the week, the task will run when either condition is met. For instance, if you select the 1st and 15th, and select Sunday, the program will be run every 1st and 15th of the selected months (regardless of day of week) as well as every Sunday of the selected months (regardless of day of the month). The scheduled task is not actually set up until the crontab has been saved. As with creating new tasks, changes to tasks will not actually be made until the crontab is saved. To cut a scheduled task, first select the task to be cut. Then select Edit Cut. Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Cut, or simply press CtrlX. To copy a scheduled task, first select the task to be copied. Then select EditCopy . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Copy, or simply press CtrlC. To paste a scheduled task, first a scheduled task must have already been cut or copied to the clipboard. Once a scheduled task has been cut or copied, paste will be enabled. Then select the Tasks folder. Finally, select Edit Paste . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Paste, or simply press CtrlV. To modify a scheduled task, first select the task to be modified. Then select Edit Modify... . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Modify..., or simply press CtrlO. You will see the Edit Task dialog, with which you would modify the task as described above. To delete a scheduled task, first select the task to be deleted. Then select Edit Delete . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Delete. To enable or disable a scheduled task, first select the disabled task. Disabled tasks will have Disabled in their descriptions. Then select Edit Enabled . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Enabled. Confirm that the scheduled task's program name, parameters, and description are correctly displayed. To run a scheduled task immediately, first select the task. Then select Edit Run Now . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Run Now. To create a new environment variable, first select the Variables folder. Then select EditNew... . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose New..., or simply press CtrlN. Edit Variable dialog. Edit Variable dialog. Variable Enter the environment variable name. You can use the drop-down list box to select from the most common environment variables used by scheduled tasks. Those include: HOME To be used instead of the default user's home folder. MAILTO To send email output to an email address other than the user's default email address. PATH To be used to search folders for program files. SHELL To be used instead of the user's default value. Value Enter the environment variable value. Comment Enter a description for the environment variable, such as its purpose. Enabled To enable or disable the variable, select or de-select Enabled. OK Completes the setting of this variable. Cancel Cancels the setting of this variable. The environment variable is not actually set up until the crontab has been saved. As with creating new variables, changes to variables will not actually be made until the crontab is saved. To cut an environment variable, first select the variable to be cut. Then select Edit Cut . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Cut, or simply press CtrlX. To copy an environment variable, first select the variable to be copied. Then select Edit Copy . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Copy, or simply press CtrlC. To paste an environment variable, first an environment variable must have already been cut or copied to the clipboard. Once an environment variable has been cut or copied, paste will be enabled. Then select the Variables folder. Finally, select Edit Paste . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Paste, or simply press CtrlV. To modify an environment variable, first select the variable to be modified. Then select Edit Modify... . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Modify..., or simply press CtrlO. You will see the Edit Variable dialog, in which you would modify the variable as described above. To delete an environment variable, first select the variable to be deleted. Then select EditDelete Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Delete. To enable or disabled an environment variable, first select the disabled variable. Disabled variables will have Disabled in their descriptions. Then select Edit Enabled . Alternatively, you can use the right mouse button menu and choose Enabled. Confirm that the environment variable's name and value are correctly displayed. Once all scheduled tasks and environment variables have been created and/or properly modified, save the crontab by selecting File Save . Alternatively, you can simply press &Ctrl;S. Additions or changes will not actually be made until this is done. To print the crontab as it has been saved, select File Print . Printing the crontab. Printing the crontab. The standard &kde; printer dialog will display. If you select Expand you will see that there are two extra &kcron; specific options in the Print Dialog box. Print Crontab Prints the crontab for the current user. Print All Users Prints the crontabs for all users. This option is enabled only for users with super-user privileges. &Ctrl;S File Save Saves changes to the crontab. &Ctrl;P File Print... Prints the crontab. &Ctrl;Q File Quit Quits &kcron;. &Ctrl;X Edit Cut Cut the selected task or variable. &Ctrl;C Edit Copy Copy the selected task or variable. &Ctrl;V Edit Paste Paste a task or variable that has been cut or copied. &Ctrl;N Edit New... Create a new task or variable. &Ctrl;O Edit Modify... Modify the selected task or variable. Edit Delete Delete the selected task or variable. Edit Enabled Enable/disable the selected task or variable. Edit Run Now Run the selected task now. Settings Show Toolbar Displays toolbar. Settings Show Statusbar Displays statusbar. &help.menu.documentation; Why aren't the changes I'm making to scheduled tasks and/or environment variables taking effect? Additions or changes to scheduled tasks do not actually happen until the crontab has been saved. &kcron; Program copyright 2000 Gary Meyer gary@meyer.net Documentation copyright 2000 Morgan N. Sandquist morgan@pipeline.com &underFDL; &underGPL; &install.intro.documentation; In order to successfully compile &kcron;, you need the following libraries: cron, such as vixie-cron. &kcron; uses the crontab command to modify user's scheduled tasks. POSIX-compliant &UNIX;, such as provided by glibc. &kcron; uses some standard &UNIX; system calls for localization of dates and times &install.compile.documentation; &documentation.index;