In article <0m1ed4-s8u.ln1@sorsby.org>, Charlie Sorsby wrote:
>Hello,
>
>Before I begin, if this is not of general interest please feel free
>to e-mail your suggestions to me. Reply-To: is properly set to
>facilitate that.
>
>I have a question about cron's timing. Some strange things have
>been happening lately as far as timing is concerned.
>
>I've looked in /var/log/cron and find that the time stamps are
>really strange. If I edit with crontab -e, the log entry shows th
>proper time stamp but for anything that cron runs, it shows a time
>stamp for the hour before. Here's a short snippet from the log file:
>
>Mar 23 14:50:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[30592]: (crs) CMD /home/crs/bin/getmail
>Mar 23 15:52:56 sorsby crontab[30613]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root)
>Mar 23 15:53:23 sorsby crontab[30613]: (root) REPLACE (root)
>Mar 23 15:53:23 sorsby crontab[30613]: (root) END EDIT (root)
>Mar 23 14:54:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[131]: (root) RELOAD (tabs/root)
>Mar 23 14:55:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[30618]: (root) CMD (/usr/libexec/atrun)
>Mar 23 14:55:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[30619]: (crs) CMD (/home/crs/bin/getmail
>
>Notice that cron ran getmail at what it thinks is 14:50. A couple
>minutes later, I edited root's crontab and it shows that event at
>the correct time, 51:52:56. Then, after my edit, it reverts back
>to the incorrect time. It's as though all of the system except
>cron is on Daylight Saving Time but cron is on standard time.
>
>Does cron *not* use the same clock as the rest of the system?
>I tried looking in _Unix System Administration Handbook_ by Nemeth,
>et al. but couldn't find anything about how cron is actually timed.
>
>How does one tell cron that we're on daylight saving time now?
>(And, yes, I did fetch the time-zone configuration file from
>ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2007b.tar.gz and perform the
>steps per:
>http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...7-6163042.html
>and, as far as I can tell, everything is running on DST -- *except*
>cron.
>
>What must I do to tell cron to run at the same time as the rest of
>the system? Surely it isn't necessary to reboot the system to
>convince cron that the time's really an hour later than it thinks
>it is... Would that even do it?
>
>For what it's worth I'm running freeBSD 4.11 (don't ask) as
>distributed on the CDROM.
>
>Many thanks for any help and kindest regards,
>
>Charlie
>--
>Charlie Sorsby
> crs@swcp.com
> Edgewood, NM 87015
> USA

Have you run /usr/ports/misc/zoneinfo to take of care of the
new time zones that went into effect a week or so ago?

It's a really quick fix.

Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

In article <0m1ed4-s8u.ln1@sorsby.org>, Charlie Sorsby wrote:
>Hello,
>
>Before I begin, if this is not of general interest please feel free
>to e-mail your suggestions to me. Reply-To: is properly set to
>facilitate that.
>
>I have a question about cron's timing. Some strange things have
>been happening lately as far as timing is concerned.
>
>I've looked in /var/log/cron and find that the time stamps are
>really strange. If I edit with crontab -e, the log entry shows th
>proper time stamp but for anything that cron runs, it shows a time
>stamp for the hour before. Here's a short snippet from the log file:
>
>Mar 23 14:50:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[30592]: (crs) CMD /home/crs/bin/getmail
>Mar 23 15:52:56 sorsby crontab[30613]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root)
>Mar 23 15:53:23 sorsby crontab[30613]: (root) REPLACE (root)
>Mar 23 15:53:23 sorsby crontab[30613]: (root) END EDIT (root)
>Mar 23 14:54:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[131]: (root) RELOAD (tabs/root)
>Mar 23 14:55:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[30618]: (root) CMD (/usr/libexec/atrun)
>Mar 23 14:55:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[30619]: (crs) CMD (/home/crs/bin/getmail
>
>Notice that cron ran getmail at what it thinks is 14:50. A couple
>minutes later, I edited root's crontab and it shows that event at
>the correct time, 51:52:56. Then, after my edit, it reverts back
>to the incorrect time. It's as though all of the system except
>cron is on Daylight Saving Time but cron is on standard time.
>
>Does cron *not* use the same clock as the rest of the system?
>I tried looking in _Unix System Administration Handbook_ by Nemeth,
>et al. but couldn't find anything about how cron is actually timed.
>
>How does one tell cron that we're on daylight saving time now?
>(And, yes, I did fetch the time-zone configuration file from
>ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2007b.tar.gz and perform the
>steps per:
>http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...7-6163042.html
>and, as far as I can tell, everything is running on DST -- *except*
>cron.
>
>What must I do to tell cron to run at the same time as the rest of
>the system? Surely it isn't necessary to reboot the system to
>convince cron that the time's really an hour later than it thinks
>it is... Would that even do it?
>
>For what it's worth I'm running freeBSD 4.11 (don't ask) as
>distributed on the CDROM.
>
>Many thanks for any help and kindest regards,

*SOME* applications get the timezone info at program _start-up_ only.
they don't expect the 'zoneinfo' file to change out from under them.
They _do_ adjust time translation, according to the specifications they
read in, at program start-up.

Shut down the daemon and re-start it -- this should fix the problem.

Re-boot _not_ required.

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc, in
article <0m1ed4-s8u.ln1@sorsby.org>, Charlie Sorsby wrote:

> If I edit with crontab -e, the log entry shows th
>proper time stamp but for anything that cron runs, it shows a time
>stamp for the hour before. Here's a short snippet from the log file:

Yes - they are different processes - as the log shows

>Mar 23 14:54:00 sorsby /usr/sbin/cron[131]: (root) RELOAD (tabs/root)

Reloading the _crontab_

>Does cron *not* use the same clock as the rest of the system?

Yes

>How does one tell cron that we're on daylight saving time now?

Same way everyone else does - by computing the time plus the offset.

>(And, yes, I did fetch the time-zone configuration file from
>ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2007b.tar.gz and perform the
>steps per:
>http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...7-6163042.html
>and, as far as I can tell, everything is running on DST -- *except*
>cron.

Ah, one of the joys of living in Arizona where I don't have to put
up with this crap. Anyway, when did you replace the files, compared
to when did the cron daemon _start_ (not reload, but start)? Some
processes only look at the tzset information when they start. As a
shot, try sending cron a -HUP (kill 30592 -HUP) and see if that
cures it - and if not, try stopping and starting the daemon.

Old guy