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From: rat@madnix.UUCP (David Douthitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Wanted: PC 'cron'-like TSR (?) program
Summary: Might have one...
Message-ID: <1678@madnix.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 91 20:41:47 GMT
References: <628@tessi.UUCP>
Reply-To: rat@ruth.UUCP (David Douthitt)
Distribution: na
Organization: ARP Software, Madison, WI
Lines: 41


In article <628@tessi.UUCP> steve@tessi.uucp (Steve Willoughby) writes:
|
| I need to find a DOS program which does something similar to the UNIX 'cron'
| or 'at' commands... namely, wait until a specified time and then run a given
| program.  This program should ideally be a TSR that contains just enough 
| code to wait for a certain time of day and then fire up an application,
| wait for it to finish running, and then go dormant again.

I wrote a program called 'at' which takes as its arguments a line that
matches a 'cron' line exactly.  The program argument is optional.
The only drawback is that it does not support the extended formats that
are available in crontab - like 0,15,30,45 (for 0 minutes, 15 mins, 30 mins,
and 45 mins after the hour for example) or like 1-5 (for Monday thru
Friday).

Some of the features of my 'at' - it will wait until the specified time/date
before continuing.  If a program a specified as the sixth option, it
will execute that program before completion.  If you use the -x option
it will return IMMEDIATELY with the return code specifying whether it
is time or not, according to the rest of the arguments.

This way, you can put 'at' in a larger loop in your batch file and use
the exit code to branch on when the time comes.

| The application for this is to get UUPC to poll other systems automatically
| by waiting until the late hours of the night and then firing up UUPC.
| (So, if anyone has a UUPC-specific solution, that would be even better.
| The copy of UUPC I have doesn't seem to have any such feature.)

By golly, that's almost exactly what I wrote mine for!  I used it to write
a batch file to poll my UUCP host over Christmas break - three times a night.
Never blinked.  I use Waffle though - can you send me info on UUPC?
I'm also interested in data on the UNIX 'at' if you can get it.
I'll send you my 'at' if you want it.

-- 
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