THE VIRTUAL SERVER HANDBOOK

Notice the use of the "virtual" command in the above example. The virtual

command is used to run scripts from the user s "home" directory. It should

be pointed out here that CRON jobs do not run from the Virtual Server

environment. They run from the physical server environment but run under

the Virtual Server User ID (a special number that keeps track of users, what

files they own, and what processes they own). For this reason, when you try

and run scripts or programs from Cron, you must include the full path to the

script. This includes the path to your "home" directory. For example, if my

Telnet login were "judy", the path to my home directory would be

/usr/home/judy/

. This is the path from the physical server s root file

structure.

Example Cron for sending a notice to occasionally mail information to

judy:

01 09 14,30 1,3,5,7,8,10,12 * cat $HOME/etc/

Cronfile/my_ Cron_file | /usr/bin/mail  s

"Message goes here" judy@somedomain.com

Note:  The use of the environmental variable 

$HOME

, enables you to do

the same thing as the virtual command.

Example Cron for automating stats using getstats:

40 19 * * * /usr/local/bin/getstats  d  f |

/usr/bin/mail  s "HTTP Daily stats"

judy@somedomain.com

Example Cron for producing a weekly "getstats" report

40 19 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/getstats  w  f |

/usr/bin/mail  s "HTTP Weekly stats"

judy@somedomain.com

Example Cron for nuking the logs with the  n option

40 19 1 * * /usr/local/bin/getstats  w  f  n |

/usr/bin/mail  s "HTTP Monthly Stats"

judy"@somedomain.com

Note:  Nuking the logs only occurs after Cron has produced a weekly

"getstats" report.

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 1999  DIGITAL TOOLS  LLC.

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