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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,
       between  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.
       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 the 0anacron cron job (which
       is a part of crontab(1)) into the /etc/cron.hourly/jobs.deny directory.
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
       after 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 AT actcom.il>
       Currently  maintained  by  Pascal  Hakim  <pasc@(debian.org|redellipse.
       net)>.
       For Fedora, maintained by Marcela Malaova <mmaslano AT redhat.com>.

cronie                            2012-11-22                     ANACRONTAB(5)