Managing System Information, Processes, and Performance in Oracle® Solaris 11.2

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Updated: September 2014
 
 

Ways to Automatically Execute System Tasks

You can set up many system tasks to execute automatically. Some of these tasks should occur at regular intervals. Other tasks need to run only once, perhaps during off hours such as evenings or weekends.

This section contains overview information about two commands, crontab and at, which enable you to schedule routine tasks to execute automatically. The crontab command schedules repetitive commands. The at command schedules tasks that execute once.

The following table summarizes crontab and at commands, as well as the files that enable you to control access to these commands.

Table 4-1  Command Summary: Scheduling System Tasks
Command
What It Schedules
Location of Files
Files That Control Access
crontab
Multiple system tasks at regular intervals
/var/spool/cron/crontabs
/etc/cron.d/cron.allow and /etc/cron.d/cron.deny
at
A single system task
/var/spool/cron/atjobs
/etc/cron.d/at.deny