in reply to Re^2: cron script best practices
in thread cron script best practices
Questions, remarks:
- How come the script is filling up /usr? Where is it writing, with whose permission, and why? Ideally, the size of /usr should only change when installing patches, or upgrading your Operating Environment.
- Do you script actually do what they are supposed to do? Do you scripts connect to the database, or are they just hanging there, trying to log on?
- How fast do your scripts run "by hand"? If it takes 20 minutes by hand, and you start one every 15 minutes, you will run into problems.
- To avoid having to many instances running, if I write cron jobs making database connections that fire every 15 minutes, I use a lock file to avoid multiple instances from running. Policies can vary: the one failing to get the lock exits, the one failing to get a lock kills the one holding the lock, or a combination of the two (exit if the lock is held by a process that started less then $X minutes ago - else kill the one holding the lock). Waiting for the lock usually isn't a good idea.