Women in Technology

Article:		Learning the Terminal in Jaguar, Part 1
Subject:		crontab moved
Date:		2005-10-24 06:28:24
From:		hausmeister
Response to: crontab moved
I had the same problem but after some guessing I found the files. It's not a crontab file anymore but instead they're in plist format (that's described in one of the later tutorials but can also be edited with pico). The files in question are called: com.apple.periodic-daily.plist com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist The time format is still the same as in the original tutorial.

Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

• crontab moved
  2007-02-23 16:31:41  rupertreid [View]
  
  
  I tried to find the .plist files but could not. I am using OSX 10.4.8. I would be grateful if someone would detail exactly how I can locate the .plist files and edit them in pico.
  Rgds Rupert
• crontab moved
  2007-08-28 17:44:40  Jonny81 [View]
  
  
  Rupert,
  
  type the following and it should get you there (I'm using OSX 10.4.10 so hopefully it is the same!)
  
  cd /system/library/launchdaemons
  
  This will bring you to the correct directory. If you do an ls you can see the list of files, the three which are important are:
  
  com.apple.periodic-daily.plist
  com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist
  com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist
  
  Type:
  
  sudo cp com.apple.periodic-daily.plist com.apple.periodic-daily.plist.bak
  sudo cp com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist.bak
  sudo cp com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist.bak
  
  in order to make backups of the files. If you look at the contents of the daily file through cat:
  
  cat com.apple.periodic-daily.plist
  
  you should get something like this:
  
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.apple.periodic-daily</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
  <string>/usr/sbin/periodic</string>
  <string>daily</string>
  </array>
  <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
  <true/>
  <key>Nice</key>
  <integer>1</integer>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
  <key>Hour</key>
  <integer>3</integer>
  <key>Minute</key>
  <integer>15</integer>
  </dict>
  </dict>
  </plist>
  
  We find out that the files are now in XML (I have no clue why). Anyway, there are two KEY tags, one is Hour and the other is Minute. Under each of these is the associated INTEGER tag (which in this case is 3 for HOUR and 15 for MINUTE). I changed my HOUR integer tag from 3 to 20 (so it would run at 8:15pm). Haven't had any problems.
  
  The other two files should be the same (with perhaps slightly different times).
  
  Hope this helps and sorry if it isnt the same in OSX 10.4.8. Just make sure to backup your files!
• crontab moved
  2007-08-28 17:55:55  Jonny81 [View]
  
  
  Oh, sorry forgot. To edit the file, of course:
  
  pico com.apple.periodic-daily.plist
  
  or
  
  sudo pico com.apple.periodic-daily.plist
  
  if need be. You'll do the same for the other two files, just replacing the part of the filename 'daily' above with 'weekly' or 'monthly'.

• crontab moved
  2007-02-23 16:31:21  rupertreid [View]
  
  
  I tried to find the .plist files but could not. I am using OSX 10.4.8. I would be grateful if someone would detail exactly how I can locate the .plist files and edit them in pico.
  Rgds Rupert