Problems with the crontab

[Calvin Hayden x2254]

>From article <1990Dec5.131108.17376 at ifi.unizh.ch>, by cap at ifi.unizh.ch:
> 
> We observed the following problems with the cron on a SparcStation1
> under SunOS4.0.3:
> 
> 1) Several times processes are started too early than specified
>    (error of several seconds)
> 
> 2) One time out of approx. 10 times a process is even started TWICE.
>    The crontab contains a line that should start a process at the full
>    hour saying the time by copying a file to /dev/audio
>    Every now and then two such processes are started and we hear an
>    interleaving of two time-announcements.
> 
> 3) Even worse, we have similar problems with our dumps that get started
>    via crontab and crash from time to time when two dump processes
>    are started.
> 
> If someone has made similar observations or has an explanation for this
> please E-MAIL to cap at ifi.unizh.ch
> (I do not read this group regularly)
> 
> THANX a LOT.
> 
> -- 
> * Dr. Clemens H. CAP           cap at ifi.unizh.ch        Phone +01 257-4326
> * Dept. of Computer Science    University of Zurich    Winterthurerstr. 190 
> * CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland  #include<disclaimer.h>  #exclude <flames.h>            
There was a bug in 4.0.3 as I remember.  It is fixed in 4.1.  We
were getting ready to go to 4.1 anyway, so I dont have any information
on the patch (Sun knew of this, so there should be a patch :-) ).  I think
that it was just a new cron binary - actually I just verified that there
was indeed a patch tape from sun, but I dont know the bugid.

I was seeing this on nightly dumps on occasion also.

Hope this helps.

Cal
-- 
Calvin Hayden
Texas Instruments, Johnson City, Tn.    
Voice (615)461-2254
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