Ask HN: What features/behaviour do you want in a cron management tool?

1 point

9 years ago

Background: I have recently begun using configuration management software (specifically ansible, and more recently, salt). I also make use of cron and the cron module in salt. Unfortunately the current cron module is buggy, so I'm in the process of writing a new module for it, which I may expand out to a self-contained cron management software in future as well. You can follow development at https://github.com/swalladge/cron_ng .

I'm posting here looking for feedback on what features and behaviour you believe a cron management module should have. Things like:

- should it work with crontabs or the `/etc/cron.d` directory

- should it be allowed to work with lines already present in the crontab?

- what syntax would you want to be able to use to control it?

- what api points would you find useful? (eg. job-present, env-present)

- how should it manage environment variables in crontabs? (seeing as a command only sees variables defined _above_ the line)

- what are your most/least favourite things about existing cron management tools/modules?

- anything else!

For reference, the current cron module in salt has docs at https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.cron.html and https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/states/all/salt.states.cron.html

This is not just for Salt users - if you use another configuration management tool or none at all, please voice your opinion as well!

Thanks

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