Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcdchg!laidbak!mdb
From: mdb@i88.isc.com (Mark Brukhartz)
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Re: Strange line in the root crontab: why?
Keywords: crontab
Message-ID: <1990Jul21.174725.27246@i88.isc.com>
Date: 21 Jul 90 17:47:25 GMT
References: <932@gistdev.gist.com>
Sender: usenet@i88.isc.com (Usenet News)
Distribution: comp
Organization: INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, Naperville, IL
Lines: 16

In article <932@gistdev.gist.com> flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) writes:
>I found this line in the root crontab on our 3B2/600, which is now
>running R3.2.2.  [ ... ]
>
>0 0 * * * dd if=/dev/mem of=/dev/null 2>/dev/null

It corrects single-bit memory errors before they grow into uncorrectable
double-bit errors. The command, of course, reads all of physical memory.
The memory hardware then detects any single- or double-bit errors and
corrects the single-bit errors.

	Mark Brukhartz
	INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation
	Services and Technologies
	mdb@i88.isc.com
	...!{amdahl, ico, ima, ism780c, masscomp, nucsrl, sun}!laidbak!mdb