Cron is really two things: Crond, which is a faceless background app, and CronMgr, which is a Control Panel.
Drag Crond into a folder where you keep applications or utilities.
CronMgr belongs in the Control Panels folder inside your System Folder. Drag CronMgr on top of your System Folder or on top of or into your Control Panels Folder. Open the Cron Control Panel check the boxes. Cron is now ready and willing to schedule stuff for you.
REVISION HISTORY:
Version 1.10 (4/15/94):
• Added the feature that either CronMgr or Crond will create the "Cron Preferences" folder if it can't find one. Thought I'd already done that. Also added the "Now" alias feature.
Version 1.00 (4/14/94):
• Initial release. I've been using this thing for quite a long time, but two different people on two different occasions in the same week told me that they would like to see a shareware version of this. I don't know if there is one or not, but here is one.
Enjoy!
Please report bugs, problems, and suggestions to:
Mark Malson
914 Richwood Avenue
Hamilton, OH 45013-3829 USA
CIS: [71561,1313]
Internet: markm@xetron.com
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The following text is the text from the About... dialog. Print this out if you want a hard copy of the Cron Alias name description.
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About Cron
Cron is a utility that automatically launches applications or documents at
times you specify. For example, if you have a mail program that you want
to set up to check for mail every hour, you can use Cron to launch it for you.
How to use Cron
• Place the "crond" application wherever you normally keep applications.
I use a "Utilities" folder, the same place I keep Disk First Aid and stuff.
• Place the CronMgr control panel in your Control Panels folder. You can
do this by dragging CronMgr on to the System Folder and the Finder will
put it in the Control Panels Folder for you. (Actually, CronMgr can be
anywhere, but the Control Panels folder is a handy place for it.)
• Open up the CronMgr control panel. Make sure that the "Currently
Running" and "Launch at Startup" boxes are checked.
• Make Aliases of documents or applications you want to have executed
periodically. For me, it's usually documents that direct their respective
applications to do some predetermined function (like a script).
• Put the aliases inside the "Cron Preferences" folder. This folder is inside
the "Preferences" folder inside the System Folder.
• Rename the aliases to specify when you want them executed. The name of
the alias is identical in syntax to the UNIX crontab time specifier. If you
don't know the syntax, see the section below.
That's it -- if cron is already running, it will immediately start launching
things at their respective times.
Cron Alias Names
The syntax for Cron Alias names is somewhat cryptic -- it is identical to
the UNIX crontab syntax for specifying times. The General format is:
Minute Hour Date Month Dayofweek, where:
Minute is 0-59, (the minute of the hour)
Hour is 0-23, (the hour of the day)
Date is 0-31 (the day of the month)
Month is 1-12 (the month)
Dayofweek is 0-6 (Sunday-Saturday)
Each field can specify a single value. That is, if you want something to be
executed on the hour, your minute field would be 0.
Each field can be specify multiple values by placing the desired numbers
separated by commas (no spaces!). That is, if you want something to be
launched on both the hour and the half-hour, your minute field would be
0,30.
Each field can specify a range of values by placing the desired numbers
(inclusive) separated by a dash (no spaces!). That is, if you want something
to be launched during the hours of 8 AM and 5 PM, your hour field would be
8-17.
Each field can be a combination of single values and value ranges. That is, if
you want something to be executed on the hour, on the half hour, and every
minute from 45 to 50 minutes after the hour, your minute field would be
0,30,45-50.
Each field can also specify any value by placing an asterisk (*) in the field.
If you don't care what day of the month it is, your month field would be *.
Examples of Cron Alias Names
0 * * * * would launch every hour on the hour.
30 * * * * would launch every hour on the half-hour.
5,35 * * * * would launch at 5 minutes and 35 minutes after every hour.
0 8-17 * * * would launch at 8:00 AM, and every hour on the hour until
(and including) 5:00 PM.
0 8-17 * * 1-5 would launch every hour from 8 to 5, but only on
Mondays through Fridays.
0 0 1 * * would launch at midnight on the first day of every month.
5,35 8-17 * 12 2,4 would launch at 5 minutes and 35 minutes after
every hour from 8 AM to 5 PM, every Tuesday and Thursday in December.
Cron puts a file in the "Cron Preferences" folder that is named "Min Hour
Date Month Day" so that you can remember the sequence without having
to look it up all the time.
General Stuff
Crond is a faceless background application. CronMgr is a Control Panel.
They were both developed using THINK C version 5. They require System
