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From: NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
Subject: Multiple cron executions under XENIX 2.3.3.
Message-ID: <91022.084230NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Date: 22 Jan 91 14:42:30 GMT
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network
Lines: 38

We recently started having problems within on of our XENIX machines which
has me stumped.  I have a sneaky suspicion that I have looked at the
problem long enough that I am overlooking something obvious.

The machine under questions is from Gateway 2000 and is a '386DX (33Mhz) with
cache, 8 megabyte RAM, 300 Megabyte hard drive, two serial, parallel, VGA etc.
The XENIX version is 2.3.3 via Update A of vpix.

The machine is very lightly loaded and about three weeks ago I noticed that
cron was executing its assigned tasks twice in very rapid succession.  One
of its jobs is to do automated report generating each evening and the boss
started telling me that he was getting two identical reports mailed to him
each evening.

I killed cron, put a LOG=yes in /etc/default/cron to initiate logging and
restarted cron.  Sure enough the log entries indicate that everything
controlled by cron is getting run twice typically a couple of seconds
apart.  I checked the crontabs file and everything seems correct.  I've
killed and restarted cron, stopped and restarted the machine and the
problem persists.  A second almost identical machine exhibits nothing
similar.

Like I mentioned previously I may be overlooking something which is too
obvious.  If anybody has experienced this or has any suggestions I would
appreciate their comments.  Thanks much for any answers which may be
forthcoming.  If possible please reply to the address in my signature.

                            As always,
                            Dr. G.W. Wettstein
                            Oncology Research Division Computing Facility
                            Fargo Clinic / MeritCare

                            UUCP: uunet!plains!wind!greg
                            INTERNET: greg%wind.uucp@plains.nodak.edu
                            Phone:  701-234-2833

`The truest mark of a man's wisdom is his ability to listen to other
 men expound their wisdom.'