A script that does an action every 5 minutes

Jemts has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Is it possible to have a script do a cearting action like
reading and wrting from and to a file every 5 minutes?
If so, how would I go about acomplishing this task?
Jemts

"If you're traveling in a time machine, and you're eating corn on the cob, I don't think it's going to affect things one way or the other. But here's the point I'm trying to make: Corn on the cob is good, isn't it."

Comment on A script that does an action every 5 minutes

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Re: A script that does an action every 5 minutes by TStanley (Canon) on May 26, 2001 at 00:53 UTC
Put your action in a loop and include this statement: `sleep(300)` as part of the loop. So your overall code might look like: `while(condition){ ## code here if(exit condition){ ## code here }else{ sleep(300); } }` [download] At least this is what I am assuming from your question. TStanley -------- There's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out -- Douglas Adams/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	[reply] [d/l] [select]
(ar0n: until) Re (2): A script that does an action every 5 minutes by ar0n (Priest) on May 26, 2001 at 02:58 UTC
I like until for doing that: `until ( $to_sleep_perchance_to_dream ) { print scalar localtime, "\n"; sleep 300; }` [download] [ ar0n ]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: A script that does an action every 5 minutes by arturo (Vicar) on May 26, 2001 at 00:58 UTC
In all likelihood, the best tool for this sort of job is a system utility like `cron` (installed on all *nix systems) or Windows' "Task Scheduler".	[reply] [d/l]
Re: A script that does an action every 5 minutes by mikeB (Friar) on May 26, 2001 at 01:52 UTC
If you're on Win32 (NT, 98, etc), check out Win32::AdminMisc on CPAN. It has functions which allow adding jobs to the "crontab" (AT list). You can use Perl to schedule your Perl script :-)	[reply]