Micron
1 Overview
2 Crontabs
  2.1 Crontab Groups
  2.2 Crontab Format
    2.2.1 Cronjob Definition
    2.2.2 Variable Settings
  2.3 Cronjob Output
    2.3.1 Mailing the cronjob output
    2.3.2 Logging output to syslog
    2.3.3 Sending output to file
3 micrond
  3.1 micrond Invocation
4 The 'crontab' Utility
  4.1 crontab Invocation
5 Key Features
  5.1 User Group Crontabs
  5.2 Long Crontab Lines
  5.3 Built-in Variables
  5.4 Day Field Semantics
  5.5 Variable Assignments in Crontabs
  5.6 Job Output Report
  5.7 Simultaneous Job Execution
  5.8 Detection of Crontab Modifications
6 Downloads and Installation
7 Bug Reports
Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License
Index
Micron
******

This edition of the 'Micron Manual', last updated 3 January 2024,
documents 'micron' Version 1.3.93.

1 Overview
**********

'Micron' is an implementation of the UNIX 'cron' daemon, a program that
executes periodically various tasks.  It provides a flexible job
scheduler that offers complete control over execution of the scheduled
commands as well as additional organizational features.

   Cron daemons have a long history, dating back to Seventh Edition
Unix.  The most widespread cron implementations today are "Vixie cron"
and its derivatives, originally written by Paul Vixie, and "Dillon's
cron", written by Matt Dillon.

   'Micron' is a clean, multi-threaded implementation, written from
scratch, which does not share any code with its predecessors.  Some of
the new features provided by 'micron' are: flexible control over
cronjob's standard output and error streams, which can be redirected to
syslog, mailed to arbitrary list of emails, appended to a file, or
simply ignored, control over the number of cronjob instances that are
allowed to run simultaneously, and user-group crontabs.  For a complete
list, see *note Features::.

   While providing new features, 'micron' tries to preserve backward
compatibility with the two above-mentioned implementations.  In
particular, existing crontabs from "Vixie" cron can be used with
'micron' without changes.  The same holds true for per-user crontabs
from "Dillon's" cron.  System-wide crontabs from "Dillon's" cron will
require a minor editing: the user name must be added between the
schedule and command.

   The implementation consists of two binaries: the main daemon
'micrond' and the 'crontab' utility.

2 Crontabs
**********

A set of "crontab" files contains instructions specifying what commands
to run and defining schedules for them.  'micrond' reads its crontabs at
startup and loads them to memory.  When running, it keeps track of
crontab modifications and updates its in-memory tables as soon as such
are detected.

2.1 Crontab Groups
==================

Crontabs are stored in several locations, collectively known as "crontab
groups" or "crongroups", for short.  These are:

"master crontab"
     The file '/etc/crontab'.  It is used for site-wide cronjobs, i.e.
     tasks necessary for the normal functioning of the system.

"system crontabs"
     A collection of crontab files in the '/etc/cron.d' directory.
     These are used for per-package cronjobs.

"user crontabs"
     Crontab files located in '/var/spool/cron/crontabs' contain
     per-user cronjobs and are editable by users.

"user group crontabs"
     A special crontab group intended for use with pseudo-accounts, such
     as 'apache' or 'bind'.  Crontabs of this group are located in
     subdirectories of '/var/spool/cron/crongroups' named by the
     corresponding account.  This crontab group is described in detail
     in *note User Group Crontabs::.

   Each _active_ (i.e.  non-empty and non-comment) line in a crontab
specifies a schedule and a command line to be run according to that
schedule.  Active lines in master and system crontabs specify also login
name of the user on behalf of whom the command must be run.

   Both master and system crontabs are writable only by the super-user.

   User and user group crontabs belong to particular users, and
instructions they contain are executed on behalf of their owners.  To
enable users to manipulate their crontabs, the 'crontab' command is
provided (*note crontab::).

2.2 Crontab Format
==================

Crontabs used by 'micrond' are mostly compatible with "Vixie" crontabs.
They are plain text, line-oriented files.  When parsing a crontab, the
leading and trailing whitespace on each line is ignored.  Comments are
introduced by a hash sign (#) appearing as the first non-whitespace
character in a line.  Comments and empty lines are ignored.  Very long
lines can be split across several physical lines using backslash as
continuation character.  Total length of a valid crontab line after
removing continuation characters cannot exceed 1024 characters.

   Each crontab line is either a cronjob definition or a variable
setting.

2.2.1 Cronjob Definition
------------------------

A "cronjob definition" is a line in crontab that defines a running
schedule, a user on whose behalf the job will be run (in system
crontabs), and a command to be run.

   The fields are delimited by arbitrary amount of whitespace.

   Cronjob definition begins with a "cron expression", which defines
schedule for running the command.  It consists of five fields in this
order:

field                         allowed values
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
minute                        0-59
hour                          0-23
day of month                  1-31
month                         1-12, or abbreviated month names
day of week                   0-7 (0 or 7 is Sunday), or abbreviated
                              day names

   A field may contain a single asterisk '*', which stands for "each
time unit".  For example, it means "each minute" when used in the first
field, "each hour" in second one, and so on.  Asterisk can be followed
by a slash and a decimal number, which defines a step within the
interval.  E.g.  '*/2' in second field stands for "each second hour".

   The field may also be a comma-delimited list of the following
constructs:

N
     A single number.  E.g.  '2' in first field means "second minute of
     an hour".

I-J
     Two numbers delimited by a dash define a range.  E.g '2-5' in first
     field is "minutes 2,3,4, and 5 (inclusive)".  The order is
     important.  For example, the following schedule:

          55-5 * * * *

     means "minutes 55 through 59 and 0 through 5 of the next hour".

I-J/N
     Same as above, but with step of N units, e.g.:

          10-25/5 * * * *

     which stands for "minutes 10,15,20,25".

   Names can be used in "month" and "day of week" fields.  Day and week
names are abbreviated to their first three characters
(case-insensitive).  Ranges or lists of names are allowed as well.

   The day of command's execution is determined by two fields: day of
month, and day of week.  If both are supplied (i.e.  are not '*'), the
result depends on the selected "day field semantics".  There are three
cases:

"Strict semantics"
     The command will be run only when both fields match the current
     time.  For example,

          30 4 1,15 * 5

     means "run the command at 4:30 am each Friday between the 1st and
     15th of each month".

     This semantics is the default for 'micrond'.

"Vixie semantics"
     The command will be run when either field matches the current time.
     Thus, the previous example would cause a command to be run at 4:30
     am on the 1st and 15th of each month, plus every Friday.

"Dillon semantics"
     If both day of the month and day of week are supplied, the former
     must be an integer number in range 1-5.  Its meaning is Nth such
     weekday in the month.  For example, to run the date command at 11
     am on the second and third Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of each
     month:

          0 11 2,3 * mon-wed date

     To request the last Monday, etc.  in a month, use '5'.  This will
     always match the last Monday, etc., even if there are only four
     Mondays in the month:

          0 11 1,5 * mon-wed date

     When the fourth Monday in a month is the last, it will match
     against both 4 and 5, but will only run once if both are specified.

   The semantics to use is selected by setting the
'_MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS' (*note _MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS::) variable to one
of the following values: 'strict', 'vixie', 'dillon' (case-insensitive).

   Instead of the first five fields, the following macro-definitions can
be used:

'@reboot'
     Run once, at 'micrond' startup.

'@yearly'
'@annually'
     Run once a year, i.e.  '0 0 1 1 *'.

'@monthly'
     Run once a month, '0 0 1 * *'.

'@weekly'
     Run once a week, '0 0 * * 0'.

'@daily'
'@midnight'
     Run once a day, '0 0 * * *'.

'@hourly'
     Run once an hour, '0 * * * *'.

   In master crontab ('/etc/crontab') and system crontabs (located in
'/etc/cron.d'), the cron expression is followed by "user name" field,
which holds a login name of the user on whose behalf the command will be
run.

   This field is absent in user personal crontabs, since these are
always run on behalf of the user that owns them,

   The remainder of line is taken as a shell command to be run when the
time matches the schedule.  The percent sign in the command line is
special: the first occurrence of unescaped and unquoted '%' delimits the
command line proper and the text that will be piped to its standard
input.  Any unescaped occurrences of '%' to the right of it will be
replaced with newlines.  To use a literal percent sign in the job
command line, either precede it with a backslash or quote it using
single or double quotes.

   For example, the following command line:

     mail hostmaster%Hello,%%This is a daily notification.%--%Regards from cron.%

will cause 'mirond' to start the 'mail' command and to supply the
following text to its standard input:

     Hello,

     This is a daily notification.
     --
     Regards from cron.

   Before running the command, 'micrond' changes the directory to the
home directory of the user on whose behalf the command is run (as
defined by the 'HOME' environment variable, *note HOME::), modifies the
environment as requested by variable settings (*note Variable
Settings::) and runs the command as

     $SHELL -c "COMMAND"

   Default 'SHELL' is '/bin/sh' (*note SHELL::).

2.2.2 Variable Settings
-----------------------

Variable settings modify execution environment for subsequent cron
commands.  Some variables are internal to 'micrond' and modify its
behavior.  A variable setting has the form

     NAME = VALUE

where NAME is the variable name and VALUE is the value to be assigned to
it.  Notice several important differences from the similar construct in
shell.  First of all, optional whitespace is allowed on either side of
the equals sign.  Secondly, the value is assigned verbatim, after
removing any trailing and leading whitespace.  No expansions or
substitutions take place.  If you need this kind of functionality, move
environment manipulations to a shell script and invoke it from the cron
command.

   You don't need to quote VALUE even if it contains embedded
whitespace.  There are only two cases when quoting becomes necessary: to
define an empty variable or to preserve leading or trailing whitespace.
Both single and double quotes can be used, the only requirement being
that both quotes match.  Inside a quoted string, a backslash character
can be used to escape a quote character or another backslash.  To define
an empty variable, use a pair of quotes.

   The special construct

     NAME =

unsets the variable NAME.

   Each variable setting applies to all cron commands that follow it,
until another setting overwrites it or the end of file is encountered.

   The following are "built-in variables".  They modify the handling of
cron commands that follow them, but are not copied to the command
environment.  Variables prefixed with '_JOB_' affect only the first cron
command that appears after them, whereas variables prefixed with
'_MICRON_' affect all commands that follow them, until another
assignment of the same variable is encountered or the end of the file is
reached.  A built-in variable can be assigned a default value in the
command line using the '-v' option (*note initial value::).

 -- Built-in variable: _MICRON_OUTFILE_FACILITY
 -- Built-in variable: _JOB_OUTFILE_FACILITY
     The value of this variable is the name of a file.  If the variable
     is set, any output the cronjob produces will be appended to that
     file.

     *Note Sending output to file::.

 -- Built-in variable: _MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY
 -- Built-in variable: _JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY
     If this variable is set to a meaningful syslog facility, the
     cronjob output will be logged to that facility (priority 'INFO'),
     instead of mailing it the usual way.  *Note Logging output to
     syslog::.

     Allowed values for this variable are 'auth', 'authpriv', 'cron',
     'daemon', 'ftp', 'lpr', 'mail', 'news', 'syslog', 'user', 'uucp',
     and 'local0' through 'local7'.

     The value 'default' means to use the default syslog facility
     ('cron'), and 'off' or 'none' disables syslog and reverts to
     mailing the program output as directed by the 'MAILTO' variable
     (*note MAILTO::).

 -- Built-in variable: _JOB_SYSLOG_TAG
     Sets the syslog tag for the next cron command.  The tag is used
     when logging cronjob output to syslog (*note Logging output to
     syslog::), or appending it to a file (*note Sending output to
     file::).  If not specified, the tag will be constructed as

          FILE:LINE(PROG)

     where FILE and LINE are the file name and line number of the line
     where the cron command appeared and PROG is the first word of the
     command.

     The global counterpart of this variable, '_MICRON_SYSLOG_TAG', is
     provided for completeness.  It is probably of little use, since it
     sets the same tag for all crontab entries.

 -- Built-in variable: _MICRON_MAXINSTANCES
 -- Built-in variable: _JOB_MAXINSTANCES
     An integer value defining how many instances of the same cron job
     can be running simultaneously.  Default is 1, i.e.  'micrond' will
     refuse to start a job if its previous run has not yet terminated.

 -- Built-in variable: _JOB_MAILTO
     This variable temporarily masks the 'MAILTO' environment variable
     and disables the variables '_MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY' and
     '_MICRON_OUTFILE' for the next crontab entry.  After that, the
     previous values are restored.  Use it to redirect output of a
     single crontab entry to a particular email address.

     The global version of this variable, '_MICRON_MAILTO', is mostly
     equivalent to the traditional 'MAILTO' variable, except that any
     existing value of 'MAILTO' is retained in the environment.

     *Note Mailing the cronjob output::, for the detailed discussion of
     how the output is mailed.

     *Note Cronjob Output::

 -- Built-in variable: _MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS
 -- Built-in variable: _JOB_DAY_SEMANTICS
     Defines the day semantics.  Allowed values are: 'strict', 'vixie',
     and 'dillon' (case-insensitive).  *Note Day Field Semantics::.

   The following are environment variables that modify the behavior of
'micrond' itself.

 -- Environment: MAILTO
     Defines an email address or a comma-delimited list of email
     addresses.  If any of the cron commands that follow this setting
     produces anything on its standard output or standard error, the
     output will be collected and mailed to the emails listed in the
     'MAILTO' variable.  If the variable is undefined, the output will
     be sent to the owner of the crontab.  If 'MAILTO' is set to an
     empty string, no mail will be sent.

     *Note Mailing the cronjob output::, for the detailed discussion of
     how the output is mailed.

 -- Environment: HOME
     Defines the working directory from which the subsequent commands
     will be run.  Defaults to home directory of the user on whose
     behalf the command is run.

 -- Environment: SHELL
     Defines the shell used to start commands.  Defaults to '/bin/sh'.

2.3 Cronjob Output
==================

When run, a cronjob can print something on its standard output or error
streams.  The output it produces can be sent via email to a given list
of addresses, appended to a file, or reported via syslog.  This "output
redirection" can be configured either globally, or individually for each
job.  It is controlled by the following variables:

'MAILTO'
'_MICRON_MAILTO'
'_JOB_MAILTO'
     Send the output via email.

'_MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY'
'_JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY'
     Report each output line via syslog.

'_MICRON_OUTFILE'
'_JOB_OUTFILE'
     Append the output to a file.

   These settings are discussed in detail in the following subsections.

2.3.1 Mailing the cronjob output
--------------------------------

The default behavior is to mail the cronjob output to the user on whose
behalf the cronjob is run.  The message 'From:' header is constructed as
follows:

     From: (Cron daemon) <OWNER@HOST>

where OWNER is the login name of the job owner, and HOST is the name of
the host where it was run.

   The 'Subject:' header contains the owner login name, hostname of the
server where the command was run and the command itself, in the
following format:

     Cron <USER@HOST> COMMAND

   A copy of execution environment is included in the message in the
form of additional 'X-Cron-Env:' headers, each containing a single
environment variable.

   The recipient of the message can be altered by setting the 'MAILTO',
'_JOB_MAILTO', and '_MICRON_MAILTO' variables in the crontab.

   The 'MAILTO' variable is the traditional way of defining the
recipients for the job output.  It affects all cronjobs in crontab that
appear after it, until next definition of any of the three variables
discussed, or end of the crontab file, whichever occurs first.  It is
also reflected in the environment of the job itself.  *Note MAILTO::.

   If 'MAILTO' is unset, the default behavior (mailing to the owner) is
restored.  If it is set to an empty string, cronjob output is discarded.

   _Notice_ the difference:

'MAILTO ='
     Restores default behavior.

'MAILTO = ""'
     Discards the output.

   The two built-in variables '_JOB_MAILTO' and '_MICRON_MAILTO' behave
as 'MAILTO', with the following differences:

   The '_JOB_MAILTO' variable, if set, affects only the cronjob that
immediately follows it.  It is not reflected in the environment.  *Note
_JOB_MAILTO::.

   The '_MICRON_MAILTO' variable is rarely used.  It works exactly as
'MAILTO', except that the actual value of the latter remains unchanged.
It is not reflected in the environment, either.

2.3.2 Logging output to syslog
------------------------------

To send the output of all the cronjobs to the syslog, assign the name of
the syslog facility to the built-in variable '_MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY',
e.g.:

     _MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY = local0

   Valid facility names are 'auth', 'authpriv', 'cron', 'daemon', 'ftp',
'lpr', 'mail', 'news', 'syslog', 'user', 'uucp', and 'local0' through
'local7'.

   Similarly, to log only a single cronjob output, define the variable
'_JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY' immediately before that cronjob.

   In the produced log, each line of a cronjob output will be tagged
with a fully-qualified name of the cronjob, constructed as:

     FILE:LINE(PROG)

   You can alter this using the '_JOB_SYSLOG_TAG' variable.  The
following example illustrates the use of the two per-job syslog
variables:

     _JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY = daemon
     _JOB_SYSLOG_TAG = daily_cleanup
     0 1 * * *  root  /usr/local/bin/cleanup

2.3.3 Sending output to file
----------------------------

To redirect cronjob output to a file, use the '_MICRON_OUTFILE' or
'_JOB_OUTFILE' built-in variables.  The value of these variables is the
name of file to append the output to.  For example, to redirect output
of all cronjobs in a crontab to file '/var/log/cronout', place the
following at the beginning of the crontab:

     _MICRON_OUTFILE = /var/log/cronout

   For example, when running 'micrond' in a docker container, you can
redirect the output of all cronjobs to the container log as follows:

     _MICRON_OUTFILE = /proc/1/fd/1

   The '_JOB_OUTFILE' variable affects only the cronjob that follows it.

   Output from each job is appended to the output file in a single
chunk, which appears between the following two delimiter lines:

     TS_START: TAG output begins

and

     TS_END: TAG output ends

where TS_START and TS_END are job start and termination timestamps in
ISO 8601 format, and TAG is the cronjob tag, formatted as described in
*note cronjob tag::.  If the '_SYSLOG_TAG' variable is defined, its
value will be used instead.

   For example:

     2021-10-23T03:00:00: /etc/cron.d/backup:16(daily_backup) output begins
     .
     .
     .
     2021-10-23T03:07:15: /etc/cron.d/backup:16(daily_backup) output ends

3 micrond
*********

'micrond' executes commands periodically as directed by one or more
"crontabs".  *Note Crontabs::, for a discussion of crontab locations and
format.

   Normally, a cron job is not run if its previous instance is still
running.  For instance, if a cron job scheduled to run each minute takes
three minutes to finish, it will be actually run once in three minutes.
This behavior can be altered by setting the '_MICRON_MAXINSTANCES'
variable to the desired number of cron job instances that can be run
simultaneously (use '_JOB_MAXINSTANCES' to change the setting for one
job only, *note _MICRON_MAXINSTANCES::).

   Depending on cronjob settings, any data the running job produces on
its standard output and standard error can be either logged via syslog
in real time, or captured and, upon termination of the job, mailed to
the job owner, or appended to a file (*note Cronjob Output::).

   On GNU/Linux systems, 'micrond' monitors each opened crontab for
modifications and re-reads it as soon as it is written to disk.  On
other systems, it checks crontab modification times each minute and
re-reads those crontabs for which this value has changed.

3.1 micrond Invocation
======================

The 'micrond' daemon takes no command line arguments.  Its behavior is
controlled by command line options.

   Unless instructed otherwise, upon startup 'micrond' disconnects from
the controlling terminal and remains in the background.  During normal
execution it logs its diagnostic messages (if any) via 'syslog' facility
'cron'.  Eventual output and error diagnostics from the invoked cron
jobs are mailed to the job owner, as described in *note Mailing the
cronjob output::.

   The following options modify the 'micrond' behavior:

'-f'
     Remain in foreground.

'-h'
     Display a short help summary and exit.

'-g GROUP=DIR'
     Define the directory or file name for crontab group GROUP.  Valid
     group names are: 'master', 'system', 'user', and 'group'.  *Note
     Crongroups::.

'-g GROUP'
'-g noGROUP'
     Enable or disable crontab group GROUP.  Note, that the 'group'
     crontab group is disabled by default.

'-l PRI'
     Log only messages with syslog priority PRI or higher.  Valid
     arguments are, in order of increasing priority: 'debug', 'info',
     'notice', 'warning', 'err', 'crit', 'alert', and 'emerg'.

'-m MAILER'
     Set the mailer command.  Default is '/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t'.

'-P FILE'
     Write PID of the program to FILE.

'-p SOCKET'
     Send messages to syslog via this socket.  The argument is either an
     absolute file name of a UNIX socket, or a host name or IPv4 address
     optionally followed by a colon and port number or service name.

'-S'
     When running in foreground (see the '-f' option), log messages from
     'micrond' to the syslog facility 'cron', instead of printing them
     to the standard error.  Not to be confused with the '-s' option,
     described below.

'-s'
     Log output from cronjobs to syslog.  By default, the 'cron'
     facility is used.  Use the '-v syslog_facility=F' option to change
     it to facility F.  See below, for the discussion of the '-v'
     option.

'-T N'
     In foreground mode, when logs go to stderr, precede each line with
     a timestamp in ISO 8601 format ('-T0').  N can be 1 to skip seconds
     and 2 to skip both minutes and seconds from the timestamp.

'-t N'
     Before exiting, 'micrond' checks if any of the cronjobs are still
     running.  If so, it sends them the 'SIGTERM' signal and waits N
     seconds for them to terminate.  The cronjobs that fail to exit
     within that amount of time are terminated forcibly by sending them
     the 'SIGKILL' signal.

     The default timeout is 60 seconds.

'-V'
     Print program version, licensing information and exit.

'-v NAME=VALUE'
     Assigns initial value for the 'micrond' internal variable NAME
     (*note built-in variables::).  The variable name must be used
     without prefix.  Comparison is case-insensitive.  For example:

          -v syslog_facility=daemon

     is equivalent to

          _MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY = daemon

'-W OPT'
     Set internal 'micrond' option.  As of version 1.3.93, only one such
     option is implemented: 'paranoid_memfree'.  When
     '-Wparanoid_memfree' is given, 'micrond' will meticulously free all
     allocated memory before terminating.  Normally this isn't needed,
     as the operating system will reclaim that memory anyway.  Use this
     option if you run 'micrond' under 'valgrind' or another memory leak
     detector, in order to avoid spurious warnings.

4 The 'crontab' Utility
***********************

The 'crontab' utility allows the user to list, edit or remove personal
or group crontabs.

   The 'micrond' cron daemon reads crontabs from several crontab groups,
two of which contain crontabs for particular system users.  The "user
crongroup" contains per-user crontabs, and the "group crongroup"
contains user crontabs editable by a group of users (*note
Crongroups::).

   By default, 'crontab' operates on per-user crontabs.  To edit group
crontabs, the '-g' option must be specified.

   When run without arguments, 'crontab' enters "copy mode", in which it
copies the content of the supplied file to the user personal crontab,
overwriting its prior content.  For example

     crontab newfile

overwrites the current crontab schedule of the user with the content of
the file 'newfile'.

   To list the content of the crontab, use the '-l' option.  It will be
displayed on standard output.

   To edit it, run 'crontab -e'.  A temporary copy of the crontab will
be created and loaded to the editor specified by the 'VISUAL'
environment variable.  If it is unset, the 'EDITOR' variable is
consulted.  If this variable is unset as well, the built-in default 'vi'
will be used.

   Once you quit the editor, the edited crontab will be atomically moved
to your personal crontab and re-read by 'micrond'.

   The '-r' option removes the crontab.  Use it with caution.  No backup
copies are preserved.

   When using destructive operations (such as copying or removal), it is
safer to use the '-i' option which instructs the program to ask for the
user consent before undertaking the modification.

   The super-user can address the crontab of a particular user by
supplying the user login name with the '-u' option.  The use of this
option is restricted for super-user, except if used together with the
'-g' option.

   User crontab groups contain multiple files for each system user.
They are useful for certain pseudo-accounts.  For example, a site
running multiple web services may need to install separate crontabs for
each of them and to allow users who run these services to edit their
crontabs.  This is done using the '-g' option.  The name of the account
for which the crontab is edited is supplied with the '-u' option.  For
example, to edit a crontab 'portal' in account 'www-data', one would
use:

     crontab -g -u www-data -e portal

   The use of group crontabs for account X is allowed only for users who
are members of the primary group of X.

4.1 crontab Invocation
======================

The crontab usage is:

'crontab [-u NAME] FILE'
     Copy mode.  Replace the crontab of the user who invoked the command
     with the content of FILE.

     The '-u' is allowed only for super-user.  With this option, the
     crontab of the user NAME is replaced.

'crontab [-eilr] [-u NAME]'
     List ('-l'), edit ('-e') or remove ('-r') the user's crontab.

     The '-u' is allowed only for super-user.  With this option, the
     command operates on the crontab of the user NAME.

'crontab -g [-u NAME] [-eilr] FILE'
     List ('-l'), edit ('-e') or remove ('-r') the crontab FILE in the
     crongroup of the current user (or user NAME).  (*note User Group
     Crontabs::)

     The '-u' option is allowed for super-user and any user whose
     primary group matches that of the user NAME.

   The following table summarizes command line options of the 'crontab'
utility:

'-e'
     Edit crontab.

'-g'
     Operate on user cron group files.

'-h'
     Print a short command line usage summary and exit.

'-i'
     Interactively ask before removing or replacing.

'-l'
     List crontab content.  When used with the '-g' option, this option
     lists the content of the crontab FILE in the group.  If FILE is not
     supplied, displays the list of available crontabs in the group,
     along with their owners.

'-r'
     Remove the crontab.

'-u NAME'
     Operate on crontab of user NAME.

'-V'
     Print program version, licensing information and exit.

5 Key Features
**************

The following sections describe features specific to 'micrond'.

5.1 User Group Crontabs
=======================

User group crontabs are an experimental feature designed to facilitate
maintenance of per-service crontabs.  Consider, for example, a web
server that runs multiple web sites maintained by various users who need
to run periodic backend jobs on behalf of the account the 'httpd' server
runs as.  User group crontabs make it possible without intervention of
the system administrator.  Let's assume 'httpd' runs as the user
'apache'.  The system administrator creates a directory
'/var/spool/cron/crongroups/apache', and sets 'apache' as its owner:

     mkdir /var/spool/cron/crongroups/apache
     chown apache: /var/spool/cron/crongroups/apache

   Then, he adds login names of the users who are allowed to edit apache
cronjobs to the primary group of the 'apache' user.  Once done, these
users become able to create and edit crontabs in this directory using
the 'crontab' command with the '-g' option (short for 'group').  For
example, the command

     crontab -u apache -g -e myproject

   edits the file 'myproject' in this directory.

   User group crontabs are disabled by default.  To enable them, run
'micrond' with the '-g group' option.

5.2 Long Crontab Lines
======================

Very long crontab lines can be split across several physical lines using
the familiar backslash continuation technique: a backslash appearing
immediately before the ending newline character is removed along with
the newline and the content of the next line is appended in its place.
Multiple line continuations are allowed, as long as total line length
does not exceed 1024 characters.

5.3 Built-in Variables
======================

A number of built-in variables control the interpretation of crontab
entries and execution of commands.  Each built-in variable has two name
variants: setting the name prefixed with '_JOB_' affects only the cron
job definition that immediately follows (with optional variable
assignments in between), whereas setting the name prefixed with
'_MICRON_' affects all commands that follow, until another assignment of
the same variable (or its '_JOB_' counterpart) is encountered or the end
of file is reached.  For example, the following fragment instructs
'micrond' to log all output produced by the command 'run-periodic' to
syslog facility 'daemon' using the tag 'hourly'.  These two settings
affect only this particular command:

     _JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY = daemon
     _JOB_SYSLOG_TAG = hourly

     15 * * * *  root  run-periodic

   Built-in variables are described in detail in *note built-in
variables::.

5.4 Day Field Semantics
=======================

In a crontab schedule, the day of a command's execution can be specified
by two fields: day of month (field 3), and day of week (field 5).  If
both fields are restricted (i.e.  are not '*'), their interpretation
differs between various 'cron' implementations.  "Vixie" cron will run
the command when either field matches the current time (the fields are
thus joined by a logical OR). "Dillon's" cron interprets the 3rd field
as an ordinal number of weekday in month (so that allowed numeric values
of the 3rd field in this case are 1-5).  Consider for example the
following schedule:

     0 11 1,4 * 1-3

For "Vixie" cron, this means "run the command on each 1st and 4th day of
the month as well as on each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday".  The
meaning of this schedule for "Dillon's" cron is: "run the command on
each first and fourth Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the month".

   The semantics used by 'micron' is configurable.  By default it
assumes the two fields to be joined by a logical AND, i.e.  the example
above would mean "each first and fourth day of the month _if_ the day of
week is Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday".  The use of "Vixie" or "Dillon"
semantics can be requested by setting the '_MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS'
variable in the crontab.  For example, the line:

     _MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS = Vixie

   requests the semantics used by "Vixie" cron.

   *Note _MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS::, for a detailed description of this
variable.

5.5 Variable Assignments in Crontabs
====================================

Variable assignments can appear anyplace in a crontab.  The modified
environment remains in effect for all subsequent commands until changed
by another assignment or the end of file is reached, whichever happens
first.  For example, the output of the following two example entries is
mailed to two different users:

     MAILTO=one
     * * * * * command one
     MAILTO=two
     * * * * * command two

5.6 Job Output Report
=====================

Output of a crontab job can be either mailed to its owner (a traditional
behavior), or reported via 'syslog' to arbitrary facility, or appended
to a disk file.

   The default behavior is to send the output to the user on whose
behalf the cronjob was run.  This in discussed in *note Mailing the
cronjob output::.

   When syslog is requested, each line of the cronjob output is sent to
the syslog in real time.  This setting can be enabled either globally by
the use '-s' command line option, individually in a crontab (using the
'_MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY' variable), or individually for a cronjob using
the '_JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY' variable.

   Syslog tag can be supplied using the '_JOB_SYSLOG_TAG' variable
(*note _JOB_SYSLOG_TAG::).  In its absence, syslog tag is constructed
from the location of the job in the crontab file and the first word of
the command.

   For a detailed discussion of syslog redirection, *Note Logging output
to syslog::.

   Finally, the output can be captured and appended to a given disk file
upon termination of the cronjob.  This can be useful, e.g.  when running
'micrond' in a Docker container.  *Note Logging output to syslog::.

5.7 Simultaneous Job Execution
==============================

'Micrond' controls the number of simultaneously running instances of a
cron job.  It is set by the '_MICRON_MAXINSTANCES' variable.  The
default value is 1, which means that the job won't be started until its
previous instance terminates.

   *Note _MICRON_MAXINSTANCES::.

5.8 Detection of Crontab Modifications
======================================

On GNU/Linux systems, 'micrond' uses inotify
(http://man.gnu.org.ua/manpage/?7+inotify) to track crontab
modifications, which means that any change to a crontab is noticed as
soon as the crontab file is saved.

   On other systems, 'micrond' relies on checking the crontab
modification times each minute, which is less effective.

   The use of the 'kqueue' interface on *BSD systems is planned in
future versions.

6 Downloads and Installation
****************************

The program can be downloaded from
<https://download.gnu.org.ua/release/micron>.  Before installation,
create a group which will be used as owner for the user and user group
crontab directories.  The 'crontab' binary will be installed as set-GID
to that group.  By default, the group is named 'crontab'.  Assuming
this, the usual build sequence is

     ./configure
     make
     make install

   If you chose another group name, supply it to 'configure' using the
'--with-crontab-gid' option.

   The above commands will install the package under '/usr/local'.  That
is, the server will be installed as '/usr/local/sbin/micron', the
'crontab' utility as '/usr/local/bin/crontab', etc.  If that's not what
you want, use the '--prefix' option to specify the installation prefix,
e.g.

     ./configure --prefix=/usr

   Please refer to the 'INSTALL' document in the source directory for a
discussion of available options to configure and their effect.

7 Bug Reports
*************

If you think you found a bug in 'micron' or in its documentation, please
send a mail to <gray@gnu.org> (Sergey Poznyakoff) or use the bug tracker
at <https://puszcza.gnu.org.ua/bugs/?group=micron> (requires
authorization).

Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License
*****************************************

                     Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

     Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     <https://fsf.org/>

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

  0. PREAMBLE

     The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other
     functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to
     assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,
     with or without modifying it, either commercially or
     noncommercially.  Secondarily, this License preserves for the
     author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not
     being considered responsible for modifications made by others.

     This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
     works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.
     It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft
     license designed for free software.

     We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for
     free software, because free software needs free documentation: a
     free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms
     that the software does.  But this License is not limited to
     software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless
     of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book.  We
     recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is
     instruction or reference.

  1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

     This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium,
     that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can
     be distributed under the terms of this License.  Such a notice
     grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration,
     to use that work under the conditions stated herein.  The
     "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work.  Any member
     of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you".  You accept
     the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way
     requiring permission under copyright law.

     A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the
     Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
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     A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section
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     The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose
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     The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are
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     implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and
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  2. VERBATIM COPYING

     You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
     commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
     copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License
     applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you
     add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License.  You
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     You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above,
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  3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

     If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly
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     If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
     legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
     reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
     adjacent pages.

     If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document
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     Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with
     each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general
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     year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or
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     It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
     the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies,
     to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
     Document.

  4. MODIFICATIONS

     You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
     under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
     release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the
     Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
     distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever
     possesses a copy of it.  In addition, you must do these things in
     the Modified Version:

       A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
          distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous
          versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the
          History section of the Document).  You may use the same title
          as a previous version if the original publisher of that
          version gives permission.

       B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
          entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
          the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
          principal authors of the Document (all of its principal
          authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
          from this requirement.

       C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
          Modified Version, as the publisher.

       D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

       E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
          adjacent to the other copyright notices.

       F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
          notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
          Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
          the Addendum below.

       G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
          Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
          license notice.

       H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

       I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title,
          and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
          authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the
          Title Page.  If there is no section Entitled "History" in the
          Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and
          publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add
          an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the
          previous sentence.

       J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
          for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
          likewise the network locations given in the Document for
          previous versions it was based on.  These may be placed in the
          "History" section.  You may omit a network location for a work
          that was published at least four years before the Document
          itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers
          to gives permission.

       K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
          Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section
          all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
          acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

       L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered
          in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers or the
          equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

       M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements".  Such a section
          may not be included in the Modified Version.

       N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
          "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant
          Section.

       O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

     If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
     appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no
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     some or all of these sections as invariant.  To do this, add their
     titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's
     license notice.  These titles must be distinct from any other
     section titles.

     You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
     nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
     parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text
     has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
     definition of a standard.

     You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text,
     and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of
     the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version.  Only one passage
     of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
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     already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added
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     behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old
     one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added
     the old one.

     The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this
     License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
     assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

  5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

     You may combine the Document with other documents released under
     this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for
     modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all
     of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
     unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
     combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all
     their Warranty Disclaimers.

     The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
     multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
     copy.  If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name
     but different contents, make the title of each such section unique
     by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the
     original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a
     unique number.  Make the same adjustment to the section titles in
     the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
     combined work.

     In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled
     "History" in the various original documents, forming one section
     Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
     "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications".  You
     must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements."

  6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

     You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
     documents released under this License, and replace the individual
     copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
     that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
     rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents
     in all other respects.

     You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
     distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert
     a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
     License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that
     document.

  7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

     A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other
     separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a
     storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the
     copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the
     legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual
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     If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
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  8. TRANSLATION

     Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
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     If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",
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     Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the
     actual title.

  9. TERMINATION

     You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
     except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
     otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void,
     and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

     However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your
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     Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is
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     Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate
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  10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

     The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of
     the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time.  Such new
     versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
     differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.  See
     <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

     Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
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     Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may
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     decide which future versions of this License can be used, that
     proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently
     authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.

  11. RELICENSING

     "Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site" (or "MMC Site") means any
     World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also
     provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works.  A
     public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server.
     A "Massive Multiauthor Collaboration" (or "MMC") contained in the
     site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC
     site.

     "CC-BY-SA" means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
     license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit
     corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco,
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ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
====================================================

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the License in the document and put the following copyright and license
notices just after the title page:

       Copyright (C)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
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       or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
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   If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
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   If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
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Index
*****

* Menu:

* -e:                                    crontab Invocation.  (line 781)
* -f:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 609)
* -g:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 615)
* -g <1>:                                micrond invocation.  (line 620)
* -g <2>:                                crontab Invocation.  (line 784)
* -h:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 612)
* -h <1>:                                crontab Invocation.  (line 787)
* -i:                                    crontab Invocation.  (line 790)
* -l:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 625)
* -l <1>:                                crontab Invocation.  (line 793)
* -m:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 630)
* -P:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 633)
* -p:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 636)
* -r:                                    crontab Invocation.  (line 799)
* -S:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 641)
* -s:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 647)
* -T:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 653)
* -t:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 658)
* -u:                                    crontab Invocation.  (line 802)
* -V:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 667)
* -v:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 670)
* -V <1>:                                crontab Invocation.  (line 805)
* -W:                                    micrond invocation.  (line 681)
* @annually:                             Cronjob Definition.  (line 232)
* @daily:                                Cronjob Definition.  (line 242)
* @hourly:                               Cronjob Definition.  (line 246)
* @midnight:                             Cronjob Definition.  (line 242)
* @monthly:                              Cronjob Definition.  (line 236)
* @reboot:                               Cronjob Definition.  (line 229)
* @weekly:                               Cronjob Definition.  (line 239)
* @yearly:                               Cronjob Definition.  (line 232)
* _JOB_DAY_SEMANTICS:                    Variable Settings.   (line 396)
* _JOB_MAILTO:                           Variable Settings.   (line 379)
* _JOB_MAXINSTANCES:                     Variable Settings.   (line 374)
* _JOB_OUTFILE:                          Sending output to file.
                                                              (line 545)
* _JOB_OUTFILE_FACILITY:                 Variable Settings.   (line 334)
* _JOB_SYSLOG_FACILITY:                  Variable Settings.   (line 342)
* _JOB_SYSLOG_TAG:                       Variable Settings.   (line 357)
* _MICRON_DAY_SEMANTICS:                 Variable Settings.   (line 395)
* _MICRON_MAILTO:                        Variable Settings.   (line 386)
* _MICRON_MAXINSTANCES:                  Variable Settings.   (line 373)
* _MICRON_OUTFILE:                       Sending output to file.
                                                              (line 532)
* _MICRON_OUTFILE_FACILITY:              Variable Settings.   (line 333)
* _MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY:               Variable Settings.   (line 341)
* _MICRON_SYSLOG_FACILITY <1>:           Logging output to syslog.
                                                              (line 503)
* _MICRON_SYSLOG_TAG:                    Variable Settings.   (line 369)
* built-in variable, initial value:      micrond invocation.  (line 670)
* built-in variables:                    Variable Settings.   (line 324)
* day field semantics:                   Cronjob Definition.  (line 183)
* day field semantics <1>:               Day Field Semantics. (line 877)
* default editor:                        crontab.             (line 717)
* define a variable:                     Variable Settings.   (line 292)
* dillon day semantics:                  Cronjob Definition.  (line 205)
* Dillon, Matt:                          Overview.            (line  42)
* editor, default:                       crontab.             (line 717)
* EDITOR, environment variable:          crontab.             (line 717)
* email, job output:                     Mailing the cronjob output.
                                                              (line 450)
* empty variable:                        Variable Settings.   (line 307)
* From: header, job output mail:         Mailing the cronjob output.
                                                              (line 450)
* group crontab:                         Crongroups.          (line  95)
* HOME:                                  Variable Settings.   (line 415)
* initial value of a built-in variable:  micrond invocation.  (line 670)
* input, cronjob:                        Cronjob Definition.  (line 257)
* MAILTO:                                Variable Settings.   (line 403)
* master crontab:                        Crongroups.          (line  83)
* Matt Dillon:                           Overview.            (line  42)
* paranoid_memfree:                      micrond invocation.  (line 682)
* Paul Vixie:                            Overview.            (line  42)
* PID file:                              micrond invocation.  (line 633)
* SHELL:                                 Variable Settings.   (line 420)
* standard input for a cronjob:          Cronjob Definition.  (line 257)
* strict day semantics:                  Cronjob Definition.  (line 189)
* Subject: header, job output mail:      Mailing the cronjob output.
                                                              (line 459)
* system crontab:                        Crongroups.          (line  87)
* unset a variable:                      Variable Settings.   (line 315)
* user crontab:                          Crongroups.          (line  91)
* variable, built-in:                    Variable Settings.   (line 324)
* variable, define:                      Variable Settings.   (line 292)
* variable, empty value:                 Variable Settings.   (line 307)
* variable, undefine:                    Variable Settings.   (line 315)
* variable, unset:                       Variable Settings.   (line 315)
* variables in crontab:                  Variable Settings.   (line 292)
* vi:                                    crontab.             (line 717)
* VISUAL, environment variable:          crontab.             (line 717)
* vixie day semantics:                   Cronjob Definition.  (line 200)
* Vixie, Paul:                           Overview.            (line  42)
* X-Cron-Env:, job output mail:          Mailing the cronjob output.
                                                              (line 465)