1ANACRONTAB(5) File Formats ANACRONTAB(5)
2
6 /etc/anacrontab - configuration file for Anacron
7
9 The /etc/anacrontab configuration file describes the jobs controlled by
10 anacron(8). It can contain three types of lines: job-description
11 lines, environment assignments, or empty lines.
12 Job-description lines can have the following format:
14 period in days delay in minutes job-identifier command
16 The period in days variable specifies the frequency of execution of a
18 job in days. This variable can be represented by an integer or a macro
19 (@daily, @weekly, @monthly), where @daily denotes the same value as the
20 integer 1, @weekly the same as 7, and @monthly specifies that the job
21 is run once a month, independent on the length of the month.
22 The delay in minutes variable specifies the number of minutes anacron
24 waits, if necessary, before executing a job. This variable is repre‐
25 sented by an integer where 0 means no delay.
26 The job-identifier variable specifies a unique name of a job which is
28 used in the log files.
29 The command variable specifies the command to execute. The command can
31 either be a command such as ls /proc >> /tmp/proc or a command to exe‐
32 cute a custom script.
33 Environment assignment lines can have the following format:
35 VAR=VALUE
37 Any spaces around VAR are removed. No spaces around VALUE are allowed
39 (unless you want them to be part of the value). The specified assign‐
40 ment takes effect from the next line until the end of the file, or to
41 the next assignment of the same variable.
42 The START_HOURS_RANGE variable defines an interval (in hours) when
44 scheduled jobs can be run. In case this time interval is missed, for
45 example, due to a power down, then scheduled jobs are not executed that
46 day.
47 The RANDOM_DELAY variable denotes the maximum number of minutes that
49 will be added to the delay in minutes variable which is specified for
50 each job. A RANDOM_DELAY set to 12 would therefore add, randomly,
51 between 0 and 12 minutes to the delay in minutes for each job in that
52 particular anacrontab. When set to 0, no random delay is added.
53 Empty lines are either blank lines, line containing white spaces only,
55 or lines with white spaces followed by a '#' followed by an arbitrary
56 comment.
57 You can continue a line onto the next line by adding a '\' at the end
59 of it.
60 In case you want to disable Anacron, add the 0anacron cron job (which
62 is a part of crontab(1)) into the /etc/cron.hourly/jobs.deny directory.
63
65 This example shows how to set up an Anacron job similar in functional‐
66 ity to /etc/crontab which starts all regular jobs between 6:00 and 8:00
67 only. A RANDOM_DELAY which can be 30 minutes at the most is specified.
68 Jobs will run serialized in a queue where each job is started only
69 after the previous one is finished.
70 # environment variables
72 SHELL=/bin/sh
73 PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
74 MAILTO=root
75 RANDOM_DELAY=30
76 # Anacron jobs will start between 6am and 8am.
77 START_HOURS_RANGE=6-8
78 # delay will be 5 minutes + RANDOM_DELAY for cron.daily
79 1 5 cron.daily nice run-parts /etc/cron.daily
80 7 0 cron.weekly nice run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
81 @monthly 0 cron.monthly nice run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
82
84 anacron(8), crontab(1)
85 The Anacron README file.
87
89 Itai Tzur ⟨itzur@actcom.co.il⟩
90 Currently maintained by Pascal Hakim ⟨pasc@(debian.org|redellipse.
92 net)⟩.
93 For Fedora, maintained by Marcela Mašláňová ⟨mmaslano@redhat.com⟩.
95cronie 2012-11-22 ANACRONTAB(5)