SPARC: Running cron Jobs With Power Management Software

This functionality was new in the Solaris 7 3/99 software release.

This information supersedes the information on cron jobs found in "Choosing to Use Power Management" in Using Power Management.

Beginning with the Solaris 7 release, cron jobs scheduled to run during the time a system is suspended with Power Management software are handled in the following way:

• The first cron job (the one scheduled to run at the earliest point during the time the system was suspended) is started as soon as the system resumes.

• The second and subsequent cron jobs that might have taken place during the time the system was suspended are not run at all.

Normally, the cron command identifies the next job to run and calculates the interval to wait until it is time to run that job. When a system resumes, the cron command calculates the interval until the first job has expired; then this already-queued cron job is run.

cron then rechecks its queue of jobs. It only considers jobs whose execution time has not yet passed, so any additional jobs whose run time is due during the time the system was suspended are not run.