Re: Running a perl script automatically on Mac OS X 10.5

Since you're not a formal programmer tilly's advice above might be better but you don't need an intermediate file stage to work with the cron tools. The -e flag starts an editor on the current, or a scratch, crontab. I edit mine on OS X (every version since the public beta has had cron) this way-

crontab -e

And to see what your crontab currently looks like-

crontab -l

To see what editor will be used try-

moo@cow[1]~>env | grep EDITOR
EDITOR=emacs
[download]

Proably shouldn't mess with it if you're not familiar with whatever name pops up.

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Re^2: Running a perl script automatically on Mac OS X 10.5 by tilly (Archbishop) on Sep 09, 2008 at 20:40 UTC
I avoid -e for the simple reason that I really like having my crontab documented in a file that is under source control.	[reply]
Re^3: Running a perl script automatically on Mac OS X 10.5 by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Sep 09, 2008 at 22:36 UTC
Indeed. You may have converted me just by saying it. I started putting my own utility scripts and such for various sites, checks, updates into revision control only recently. I've long done it for lib files but a month or two ago started getting all the incidentals I take for granted, like crontabs, in there too. Never again will a trashed hard drive cost me more than the money to replace it and the time to restore it.	[reply]
Re^2: Running a perl script automatically on Mac OS X 10.5 by Ninth Prince (Acolyte) on Sep 05, 2008 at 19:13 UTC
Looks like the editor is vi, which I know nothing about. It's been a billion years since I've worked in a UNIX environment -- time to dust off some old books I guess.	[reply]