Bug 59802 - Crontab(5) manpage incorrect time specification logic
Summary: Crontab(5) manpage incorrect time specification logic
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: vixie-cron
Version: 7.2
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jason Vas Dias
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2002-02-13 15:18 UTC by Enrique Perez-Terron
Modified: 2007-04-18 16:40 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version: vixie-cron-4.1-8
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2004-08-10 19:32:23 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Enrique Perez-Terron 2002-02-13 15:18:18 UTC
From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; YIE6)

Description of problem:
One stray word changes the meaning of the statement.
"Commands are executed by cron(8) when the minute,
hour, and month of year fields match the current time, and when at least one of 
the two day fields (day of month, or day of week) match the current time"

The second "when" makes the statement say that the command is executed at two 
kinds of occasions, when the minute, hour and month specifications math the 
current time, and also at any time when one of the two day specifications 
match. What is meant is that the command is executed when four out of the five 
fields match, and the one that does not match (if any) is one of the day fields.

The logical structure as it stands is like "execution happens when condition A, 
and also when condition B is met". What is meant is that execution happens when 
conditions A and B are both met simultaneously.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
vixie-cron-3.0.1-63


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. man 5 crontab.
2. /minute<enter>
3. /when<enter>
(i.e. use the '/' key to do text search in the output of 'man'.)

Additional info:

Comment 1 Jens Petersen 2004-06-30 17:47:43 UTC
Would it be sufficient to remove the second "when"?

cron.8 will change significantly when we upgrade to cron 4.1 btw.

Comment 2 Jens Petersen 2004-06-30 17:49:46 UTC
Err, actually the above sentence no longer appears in cron.8.

Comment 3 Enrique Perez-Terron 2004-07-06 09:44:43 UTC
It is not in cron.8, it is in cron.5

Comment 4 Enrique Perez-Terron 2004-07-06 10:02:40 UTC
Of course removing the second 'when' will restore the intended meaning.

Comment 5 Jason Vas Dias 2004-08-10 19:32:23 UTC
Second "when" now removed from crontab.5 in vixie-cron-4.1-8 .



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