Cron Manager™ implements the cron facility found in UNIX. It allows you to open any item (Application, Document, Folder, etc…) at a specified date and time by simply placing an alias of the item into the “Cron Events Folder”. You specify when the event occurs by naming the alias with the date and time in the following format:
the “[” and “]” indicate that part of the entry to be optional unless it is the only remaining item, and “…” indicates multiple items separated by spaces.
Cron Events Folder:
All cron entries are stored inside the “Cron Events Folder” located within the System Folder. An alias to this folder can be automatically created in the Apple Menu by selecting the alias option in the control panel window.
Below are several examples of cron entries:
Refer to the “Sample Cron Entries” and “Sample CLImate Scripts” folders for a more complete list of examples.
Tips and Hints:
• Remember not to enter dates and times out of order (i.e weekdays before date before time etc…).
• The “-” character is a wildcard symbol which can replace any part of a date or time (i.e. “7/-/93 9.-” is anytime at 9 AM every day in July).
• You can deactivate a cron entry by inserting any character at the start (i.e. “# 7/-/93” deactivates this cron entry).
• You can use as many spaces as you need to make cron entries more readable. Also, cron entries are not case sensitive.
• You can place any characters after the cron entry for commenting.
Problem Solving:
If you find that one of your cron entries is not working check the following:
• make sure that its format matches that of the syntax listed previously,
• make sure that all numbers are in the appropriate range (i.e. the month field should be between 1 and 12),
• check the Macintosh date and time to verify that they are correct,
• double click on the cron entry directly to ensure that it opens correctly without Cron Manager.
Error Codes:
The following is a list of possible error codes that are most likely to occurr. Error codes that are not listed here can be found in Inside Macintosh volumes I - IV.
-35 no such volume
-36 I/O error
-37 bad name
-43 file not found
-50 no default volume
-108 not enough memory to run Cron Manager
-120 directory not found
-600 Cron Manager was not loaded at startup, load was aborted by user
-601 memory too fragmented to run Cron Manager
-5000 user access privileges incorrect
Notes on Aborting:
You can abort the loading of Cron Manager during startup by holding down the user selectable keys (i.e. “control”, “option”, “command”, and “esc”) set in the control panel window. You must hold down only those keys that are selected. Holding down any of the four keys not selected will cause Cron Manager to load.
Note that holding down the “control” key while MacsBug is installed will cause a user break in MacsBug. Simply type “g” to continue the startup process.
If any problems arise during startup while holding down a particular key combination (i.e. such as aborting needed system extensions or other unwanted behavior), change the abort sequence in the control panel window and try again.