UNIX - help!!

[vetran]

The hyphen shouldn't be there.

http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?crontab+5

[portseven]

There is also the extened syntax in crontab that does some stuff. I have used this for MRTG before, so if I wanted my MRTG to run every 5 minutes i would do

*/5 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/mymrtgscript.sh

As far as the -, I have seen it used to indicate every minute / hour / day between 2 numbers, though this varies between flavours of cron. So for example if you wanted something to run every minute between the first 30 mins of every hour you would do....

1-30 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/mymrtgscript.sh

Or every hour between 9 and 12

1 9-12 * * * root /usr/local/bin/mymrtgscript.sh

You get the idea...

[OrangeHopper]

The comment # without 3 of the strokes?

[sparklelard]

Looks like it shouldn't be there!

+---------------- minute (0 - 59)
| +------------- hour (0 - 23)
| | +---------- day of month (1 - 31)
| | | +------- month (1 - 12)
| | | | +---- day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7)
| | | | |
* * * * * command to be executed

e.g. 0 0 1 * * cd \;rm -r * &

Which equates to, at midnight on the first day of every month, delete everything from root up. (stops when the rm command file is deleted)

[freakydancer]

I thought the first 5 columns were integer values that specify when the 6th field (command) should run.

- can be used between 2 integer values such as 9-11 in the second column would let the job run between 9am to 11am

Does the job run? what does the log in /var/cron say?

sorry it's actually

-* * * * *

so there are 5 columns after the -

[Mr Crosby]

I thought the first 5 columns were integer values that specify when the 6th field (command) should run.

- can be used between 2 integer values such as 9-11 in the second column would let the job run between 9am to 11am

Does the job run? what does the log in /var/cron say?

[freakydancer]

Whats the problem mate?

Thanks mate.

Probably the daftest question ever but I'm a Cisco kid and my knowledge of Unix is somewhat limited so please excuse my igorance!!!

Basically we're running MRTG on an HP-UX server and wondered what the "-" right at the beginning of the line means in the following text within the crontab file >>>>>

-* * * * root /home/mrtg/fwdev01.sh

[The Lone Gunman]

There is no help for those who have chosen the path to the dark side.

[Mr Crosby]

Whats the problem mate?

[freakydancer]

Any Unix nerds here?