[Dxspider-support] Questions

[Colin Harris]

HI Ian , and all,

Well you see originally Will asked a range of questions one of which
interested me. I could have answered some of his other questions but didn't.
Others it appears did but not via the support list.

OK. Fair to say my specific problem (and I can understand the dificulty with
a specific answer) is how to manipulate crontab. What is the permisseable
structured command set. What is allowed in the way of syntax and what isn't.
One could spend fruitless hours , even days , testing syntax which seems
logical but which obviously isn't (assuming ones attempt to structure a
command didn't work).  If one knows Perl or possibly even C then I've no
doubt it is a breeze.  Since a total solution is not feasible can I suggest
something along these lines. (Charlie gave part of the answer to one
question in his reply to Will).

Suggestion then :-   A small series of (spider) crontab commands covering a
few permutations of the uses of 'if' / ' if_not' / 'or' /  'run_command' ,
plus warnings about implicit safeguards to prevent loops when using such
commands. I'm sure this will go some way to clarifying at least some of the
possibilities of crontab for us non programmers.

Charlie's reply to Will seemed a lengthy process to accomplish what Will
wanted to do but it did include the "or" option when opting to connect to an
alternate cluster node.   I suggest that most understand the arrangement
with setting , minute / hour / day  etc so only some examples of  sequential
command options is required really.

I'm sure that there are others perhaps (almost) to afraid to ask quesions
for fear of appearing dim or stupid. I' m not one of them. If I don't know
or understand I'm happy to stick my neck out if the net result helps others.

Hope this provides some idea's Ian I know it's not "strictly" Spider but it
is highly relevant.

- Regards Colin

----- Original Message -----
From: Ian J Maude <ian at gb7mbc.net>
To: <dxspider-support at dxcluster.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2002 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Dxspider-support] Questions