When you're looking for a Perl module to do something specific, the CPAN search site is your friend.

Here is the result of a search for 'crontab'. As you can see, you've got a couple of modules to choose from. Crontab::Crontab is one you might want to look closely at (I haven't used it myself, perhaps another monk has?).

HTH!

Best wishes, andye

Hi Nalina,

Before you write any code, you'll want to read the docs on your system to find out the customary way of using cron for that system, for a given user. For example, Debian keeps a few directories in /etc for root to drop scripts into -- no crontab editing required. Scripts in /etc/cron.daily get automatically run daily, for example.

Changes to a crontab on a production system have a large functional impact and need to be reversible and version controlled. There is no point in developing something on a development system that will eventually be potentially catastrophic in production for this reason. Before coding anything, you need to make sure that the crontab file is version managed and that anything you develop conforms to some kind of change management regulation.

If you can't identify who is responsible for the rules of the relevant change management process in your organisation, ask the relevant production system administrator for what procedures he/she understands to be in effect to manage the crontab versions for the relevant system. I venture to suggest that only then can you safely design your code, let alone build it.

Update: in other words, any module you choose to use will therefore need a wrapper around it that conforms to site procedures.