topic Re: Script to run every hr in Operating System - HP-UX

Script to run every hr

Allanm — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:59:08 GMT

Hi!

I am having problems with the attached script when it runs at midnight (next day)...otherwise it runs fine.

Can you suggest what change I can make to run it every 5 mins past the hr successfully.

I don't want to use if statement though and I am running this thru cron.

Thanks,
Allan.

Re: Script to run every hr

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:06:09 GMT

Hi Allan:

Am I missing something? Why not 'cron' your script like this (?):

5 * * * * /path_to_script

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Script to run every hr

Allanm — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:21:40 GMT

Thats what I did but it broke when it ran at 00:05.

Re: Script to run every hr

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:34:13 GMT

Hi (again) Allan:

Instead of fiddling around with time computations over midnight, use this Perl snippet:

# perl -MPOSIX -le 'print strftime "%Y%m%d %H",localtime(time()-3600)'
20090224 15

You can use the same 'date' formatting directives you are used to using. This code uses 3600 seconds or ONE hour ago.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Script to run every hr

Patrick Wallek — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:35:09 GMT

>>Thats what I did but it broke when it ran at 00:05.

Broke how?

>>I am having problems with the attached

What kind of problems?

What does it do or not do when it runs after midnight?

Re: Script to run every hr

Patrick Wallek — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:39:21 GMT

PRESENTHR=`date '+%H'`
LASTHR=`expr $PRESENTHR - 1`

The problem is the above expressions.

When you run this during the midnight hour, which is the '0' hour, and you subtract 1 from, you get '-1'.

You need some logic to determine that '-1' should actually be hour 23 from yesterday. (I think JRF covers this in his response above.)

Re: Script to run every hr

Allanm — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:49:12 GMT

Thanks so much JRF/Patrick.

Just for my knowledge how would I handle this through "date" command.

Thanks
Allan

Re: Script to run every hr

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:14:06 GMT

Hi (again) Allan:

> Just for my knowledge how would I handle this through "date" command

You would have to subtract your one-hour from the hour field and if that is negative, back off by one day; maybe to the previous month; and perhaps to the previous year...

Hence, why reinvent the wheel...

One helpful piece if you insist on taking this route, might be to install the GNU 'date' command which can do :

# date -d yesterday

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Script to run every hr

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:20:23 GMT

Shalom,

A Clay's Date Hammer can be useful in these type of situations:

http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/caljd-2.25.sh

http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/caljd-2.2.pl

I ported it to Linux (A 1 line shell change), if you need.

Regards,

SEP