User:Johannbg/Packaging/CronFiles

Fedora Cron Job Files

This document describes the guidelines for packaging cron job file(s), in Fedora.

For the purposes of these guidelines, a cron job file is defined as an script (e.g., shell scripts or Perl scripts).

If your package requires regularly scheduled tasks to operate properly and does not ship systemd unit file, you can use those files to set that up.

Cron Job Files on the filesystem

Packages with cron job files must be placed respectfully into one or more of the following directories /etc/cron.hourly, /etc/cron.daily, /etc/cron.weekly, /etc/cron.monthly depending on the intended interval they should run.

If a certain cron job has to be executed at some frequency or at a specific time interval other then the above, that cron job file should be placed in /etc/cron.d directory.

All files installed in any of these directories must be scripts and must be treated as configuration files so that they can easily be modified by the local system administrator.

Logrotate file

If a package contains a logfile then it needs to also include a properly installed logrotate file.

Each logrotate file must end with the filename .conf. It must be placed /etc/logrotate.d/ and must have 0644 filepermission and be owned by root.

Here are examples of an logrotate file.

Example of cron job definition

# .---------------- minute (0 - 59)
# |  .------------- hour (0 - 23)
# |  |  .---------- day of month (1 - 31)
# |  |  |  .------- month (1 - 12) OR jan,feb,mar,apr ...
# |  |  |  |  .---- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0 or 7) OR sun,mon,tue,wed,thu,fri,sat
# |  |  |  |  |
# *  *  *  *  * user-name  command to be executed

Example minimal logrotate log file with user create mode

/var/log/example/*log {
	missingok		# If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing an error message
	notifempty		# Don't do any rotation if the logfile is empty
	compress		# Compress older files with gzip
  	delaycompress		# Don't compress yesterdays files
	create 640 owner group  # Set create mode immediately after rotation
}

Example minimal logrotate file with daemon restart

/var/log/example/*log {
	missingok		# If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing an error message
	notifempty		# Don't do any rotation if the logfile is empty
	compress		# Compress older files with gzip
  	delaycompress		# Don't compress yesterdays files
	sharedscripts		# Scripts are only run once for all files in directory
	postrotate
		/usr/bin/systemctl restart example.service 2>/dev/null || true
	endscript
}

Example minimal logrotate file with user create mode and daemon restart

/var/log/example/*log {
	missingok		# If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing an error message
	notifempty		# Don't do any rotation if the logfile is empty
	compress		# Compress older files with gzip
  	delaycompress		# Don't compress yesterdays files
	create 640 owner group  # Set create mode immediately after rotation
	sharedscripts		# Scripts are only run once for all files in directory
	postrotate
		/usr/bin/systemctl restart example.service 2>/dev/null || true
	endscript
}

Debugging logrotate file
You can debug your logrotate file by running

# logrotate -d -f /etc/logrotate.d/example.conf

from the command line.

Cron job file names

The file name of a cron job file should match the name of the package from which it comes.

If a package supplies multiple cron job files files in the same directory, the file names should all start with the name of the package by a hyphen (-) and a suitable suffix.

A cron job file name cannot include any period or plus characters as this will cause cron to ignore the file. Underscores should be used instead.

Cron Job Files Packaging

If an package is going to provide additional optional syslog support then they must be placed into a separate $name-<syslogging option> subpackage as in $name-rsyslog or $name-syslog-ng

Example of cron job subpackage

Name:
.....
Source1: %{name}.cron

%package example-cron
Summary:  Cron job file for %{name}
Group:    System Environment/Base
Requires: %{name} = %{version}-%{release}
Requires: crontab

%description example-cron
Cron job file for %{name}

%install 
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/cron.daily
%{__install} -p -D -m 0750 %{SOURCE1} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/cron.daily/%{name}

%files example-cron
%config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/cron.daily/%{name}

Example of rsyslog subpackage with additional rsyslog file

Name:
.....
Source1: %{name}.logrotate
Source2: %{name}.rsyslog

%package example-rsyslog
Summary:  Rsyslog support for %{name}
Group:    System Environment/Base
Requires: %{name} = %{version}-%{release}
Requires: logrotate
Requires: rsyslog

%description example-rsyslog
Rsyslog support for %{name}

%install
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_localstatedir}/log/%{name}
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/rsyslog.d
%{__install} -p -D -m 0700 %{SOURCE1} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d/%{name}.conf
%{__install} -p -D -m 0700 %{SOURCE2} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/rsyslog.d/%{name}.conf

%files example-rsyslog
%config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d/%{name}.conf
%config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/rsyslog.d/%{name}.conf
%dir %attr(0700,root,root) %{_localstatedir}/log/%{name}

Example of syslog-ng subpackage

Name:
.....
Source1: %{name}.logrotate

%package example-syslog-ng
Summary:  Syslog-ng support for %{name}
Group:    System Environment/Base
Requires: %{name} = %{version}-%{release}
Requires: logrotate
Requires: syslog-ng

%description example-syslog-ng
Syslog-ng support for %{name}

%install
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_localstatedir}/log/%{name}
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d
%{__install} -p -D -m 0700 %{SOURCE1} $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d/%{name}.conf

%files example-syslog-ng
%config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d/%{name}.conf
%dir %attr(0700,root,root) %{_localstatedir}/log/%{name}