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PERIODIC(8)		FreeBSD System Manager's Manual 	   PERIODIC(8)

NAME
     periodic -- run periodic system functions

SYNOPSIS
     periodic directory ...

DESCRIPTION
     The periodic utility is intended to be called by cron(8) to execute shell
     scripts located in the specified directory.

     One or more of the following arguments must be specified:

     daily    Perform the standard daily periodic executable run.  This usu-
	      ally occurs early in the morning (local time).

     weekly   Perform the standard weekly periodic executable run.  This usu-
	      ally occurs on Sunday mornings.

     monthly  Perform the standard monthly periodic executable run.  This usu-
	      ally occurs on the first day of the month.

     security
	      Perform the standard daily security checks.  This is usually
	      spawned by the daily run.

     path     An arbitrary directory containing a set of executables to be
	      run.

     If an argument is an absolute directory name it is used as is, otherwise
     it is searched for under /etc/periodic and any other directories speci-
     fied by the local_periodic setting in periodic.conf(5) (see below).

     The periodic utility will run each executable file in the directory or
     directories specified.  If a file does not have the executable bit set,
     it is silently ignored.

     Each script is required to exit with one of the following values:

     0	   The script has produced nothing notable in its output.  The
	   <basedir>_show_success variable controls the masking of this out-
	   put.

     1	   The script has produced some notable information in its output.
	   The <basedir>_show_info variable controls the masking of this out-
	   put.

     2	   The script has produced some warnings due to invalid configuration
	   settings.  The <basedir>_show_badconfig variable controls the mask-
	   ing of this output.

     >2    The script has produced output that must not be masked.

     If the relevant variable (where <basedir> is the base directory in which
     the script resides) is set to ``NO'' in periodic.conf, periodic will mask
     the script output.  If the variable is not set to either ``YES'' or
     ``NO'', it will be given a default value as described in
     periodic.conf(5).

     All remaining script output is delivered based on the value of the
     <basedir>_output setting.

     If this is set to a path name (beginning with a `/' character), output is
     simply logged to that file.  newsyslog(8) knows about the files
     /var/log/daily.log, /var/log/weekly.log and /var/log/monthly.log, and if
     they exist, it will rotate them at the appropriate times.	These are
     therefore good values if you wish to log periodic output.

     If the <basedir>_output value does not begin with a `/' and is not empty,
     it is assumed to contain a list of email addresses, and the output is
     mailed to them.

     If <basedir>_output is not set or is empty, output is sent to standard
     output.

ENVIRONMENT
     The periodic utility sets the PATH environment to include all standard
     system directories, but no additional directories, such as
     /usr/local/bin.  If executables are added which depend upon other path
     components, each executable must be responsible for configuring its own
     appropriate environment.

FILES
     /etc/crontab		  the periodic utility is typically called via
				  entries in the system default cron(8) table

     /etc/periodic		  the top level directory containing daily,
				  weekly, and monthly subdirectories which
				  contain standard system periodic executables

     /etc/defaults/periodic.conf  the periodic.conf system registry contains
				  variables that control the behaviour of
				  periodic and the standard daily, weekly, and
				  monthly scripts

     /etc/periodic.conf 	  this file contains local overrides for the
				  default periodic configuration

EXAMPLES
     The system crontab should have entries for periodic similar to the fol-
     lowing example:

	   # do daily/weekly/monthly maintenance
	   0	  2	  *	  *	  *	  root	  periodic daily
	   0	  3	  *	  *	  6	  root	  periodic weekly
	   0	  5	  1	  *	  *	  root	  periodic monthly

     The /etc/defaults/periodic.conf system registry will typically have a
     local_periodic variable reading:

	   local_periodic="/usr/local/etc/periodic /usr/X11R6/etc/periodic"

     To log periodic output instead of receiving it as email, add the follow-
     ing lines to /etc/periodic.conf:

	   daily_output=/var/log/daily.log
	   weekly_output=/var/log/weekly.log
	   monthly_output=/var/log/monthly.log

     To only see important information from daily periodic jobs, add the fol-
     lowing lines to /etc/periodic.conf:

	   daily_show_success=NO
	   daily_show_info=NO
	   daily_show_badconfig=NO

SEE ALSO
     sh(1), crontab(5), periodic.conf(5), cron(8), newsyslog(8)

DIAGNOSTICS
     Exit status is 0 on success and 1 if the command fails for one of the
     following reasons:

     usage: periodic <directory of files to execute>  No directory path argu-
     ment was passed to periodic to specify where the script fragments reside.

     <directory> not found  Self explanatory.

HISTORY
     The periodic utility first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

BUGS
     Since one specifies information about a directory using shell variables
     containing the string, <basedir>, <basedir> must only contain characters
     that are valid within a sh(1) variable name, alphanumerics and under-
     scores, and the first character may not be numeric.

AUTHORS
     Paul Traina <pst@FreeBSD.org>
     Brian Somers <brian@Awfulhak.org>

FreeBSD 4.9		       November 28, 2001		   FreeBSD 4.9

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