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References: <OBDXGR.9XFNW2FMQYJT2@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <OBDXGR.9XFNW2FMQYJT2@gmail.com>
From: Konstantin Kulikov <k.kulikov2@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2022 14:43:09 +0300
Message-ID: <CAD+eXGT863Qd3w_KCbEzKO8rORwE5-0ipDbQsMzUZWRtUXX8_g@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Origin of /etc/periodic in Alpine
To: Jordan Christiansen <xordspar0@gmail.com>
Cc: Alpine Linux users ML <~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

at least debian 6 from 2014 had similar crontab

17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
--report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
--report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts
--report /etc/cron.monthly )

And run-parts manpage mentions 1994 as copyright. So I guess the idea
is pretty old.

On Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 8:45 PM Jordan Christiansen <xordspar0@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know the history of /etc/periodic in Alpine? As far as I
> know, periodic was invented by FreeBSD[1], and I haven't found any
> other systems that support it, not even other BSDs. I think the
> implementation of periodic in Alpine[2] is very simple and elegant.
> FreeBSD's implementation may have a couple extra features, but it's
> also a standalone program with an associated config file. In Alpine, 5
> lines in the default crontab are enough to give us 95% of the features.
>
> Whose idea was this? Does any other Linux distro support periodic?
>
> [1]:
> https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=periodic&manpath=FreeBSD+13.1-RELEASE+and+Ports
> [2]:
> https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/blob/master/main/alpine-baselayout/crontab
>
>