Thankx for the help ... and I know that this is not a 100% perl question ... but this site is a whole lot better than using support.microsoft.com !!

: -)

Others have mentioned AT and WinAT, and it is the standard NT solution for these problems. However, a number of people have, over the years, reported problems with using it with perl scrips and/or batch files -- go to MS's support site and look at article Q142432 for an example. For a sample, go to Activestate's mail archives and search on this subject -- I believe, if my memory serves me correctly, that someone even noted why it fails.

From my own personal experience, I'd recommend using the newer "Scheduled Tasks" application, which, if I recall alright, is installed with IE 5.5. We've used it here for the last year to run perl-based reports that access over 1000+ servers, and perl scripts that died with AT (even after proper usernames were set) run fine with Scheduled Tasks

Also recommended by others (although I've never used it mysely) is cron.pl

----Asim, known to some as Woodrow.

I have used the "at" command to run automated jobs with perl scripts for long times (years) in different environments.

I have *not* seen any problems with the "at" command itself, as long as it is used with the *originally installed NT scheduling service*, and *not* the Task Scheduler (which is the newer variant of the Scheduling Service, offers a GUI, and is installed by default by a variety of MS programs, not the least newer Internet Explorer versions and the BackOffice Suite).

There are *definitively many problems* with using the "at" command in conjunction with the Task Scheduler. Don't do that. Use either "at" and the default NT scheduler, or the Task Scheduler.

Reasons for using "at" are the usual reasons for using the command line (you can use automization for job setup, run automated deploy scripts, manipulate things easily from remote, etc.).

Reasons for using the Task Scheduler mainly boil down to having a GUI and having no installation problems, since nearly all new packages for MS Server will install the Task Scheduler.

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com

Type :

at/?
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xoxo,
Andy

# Andy Lester  http://www.petdance.com  AIM:petdance
%_=split';','.; Perl ;@;st a;m;ker;p;not;o;hac;t;her;y;ju';
print map $_{$_}, split //,
'andy@petdance.com'

You could wrap the main part of the script in an
infinite loop with a call to sleep.

Set sleep to an appropriate interval of seconds i.e.
3600 (for one hour). Then run the program. It will execute
the main code once every hour.

If you want to simulate a cron
and have it run everyday at 2:00PM, you would just set the
sleep timer to 86400 (24*60*60) and first execute the program at 2:00pm today.

while(1) {
         #execute some code here....
          sleep 86400  #Run code once every 24 hours.
}

But what if it takes an hour to run the script? It'll run an hour later every day...

---
A fair fight is a sign of poor planning.

Not that I would EVER do this for something that runs once a day - you can always do this:

while (1) {
    my $loop_start = time;
    
    #.... code

    my $sleep_time = 86400 - (time - $loop_start);
    sleep ($sleep_time);
}
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TIMTOWTDI!

$ perldoc perldoc

I suppose if that were the case you could adjust the
sleep time back one hour (i.e) 60*60*23 instead of 60*60*24
to account for the hour it takes the program
to run. Just a guess off the top of my head...
-LordAvatar

AT [\\computername] [ [id] [/DELETE] | /DELETE [/YES]]
AT [\\computername] time [/INTERACTIVE]
    [ /EVERY:date[,...] | /NEXT:date[,...]] "command"

\\computername     Specifies a remote computer. Commands are scheduled
+ on the
                   local computer if this parameter is omitted.
id                 Is an identification number assigned to a scheduled
                   command.
/delete            Cancels a scheduled command. If id is omitted, all 
+the
                   scheduled commands on the computer are canceled.
/yes               Used with cancel all jobs command when no further
                   confirmation is desired.
time               Specifies the time when command is to run.
/interactive       Allows the job to interact with the desktop of the 
+user
                   who is logged on at the time the job runs.
/every:date[,...]  Runs the command on each specified day(s) of the we
+ek or
                   month. If date is omitted, the current day of the m
+onth
                   is assumed.
/next:date[,...]   Runs the specified command on the next occurrence o
+f the
                   day (for example, next Thursday).  If date is omitt
+ed, the
                   current day of the month is assumed.
"command"          Is the Windows NT command, or batch program to be r
+un.
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2001-04-25 Edit by Corion : Added CODE tags

To make this a perl-only answer, there's a perl-emulation of cron over at www.megadodo.demon.co.uk/perl/.

To run it as a service, you need srvany.exe (No you don't! See $code or die's answer below...) from the NT resource kit.

Update:
Thanks $code or die! I wasn't aware of Win32::Daemon. I'm using it now though...

To make this a 'completely' perl-only answer, I would use Win32::Daemon from http://www.roth.net!! instead of srvany.exe

$code or die
$ perldoc perldoc

Also consider grabbing winat (on one of the NT resource discs I think) which gives you a slightly nicer gui front end.

e.g to run master.bat at 1am every morning:

at \\<MACHINE> 1:00AM /every:M,T,W,Th,F,S,Su cmd /c "e:\batch\master.b
+at > e:\batch\logs\master0100AM"
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