cron_d resource

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Use the cron_d resource to manage cron job files in the /etc/cron.d directory.

Warning

Chef also ships the cron resource for managing the monolithic /etc/crontab file on platforms that lack cron.d support. See the cron resource for information on using that resource.

New in Chef Client 14.4.

Syntax

A cron_d resource block manages cron.d files. For example, to get a weekly cookbook report from the Chef Supermarket:

cron_d 'cookbooks_report' do
  action :create
  minute '0'
  hour '0'
  weekday '1'
  user 'getchef'
  mailto 'sysadmin@example.com'
  home '/srv/supermarket/shared/system'
  command %W{
    cd /srv/supermarket/current &&
    env RUBYLIB="/srv/supermarket/current/lib"
    RAILS_ASSET_ID=`git rev-parse HEAD` RAILS_ENV="#{rails_env}"
    bundle exec rake cookbooks_report
  }.join(' ')
end

The full syntax for all of the properties that are available to the cron_d resource is:

cron_d 'name' do
  command               String
  comment               String
  cookbook              String
  cron_name             String # default value: 'name' unless specified
  day                   Integer, String # default value: *
  environment           Hash
  home                  String
  hour                  Integer, String # default value: *
  mailto                String
  minute                Integer, String # default value: *
  mode                  String, Integer # default value: 0600
  month                 Integer, String # default value: *
  path                  String
  predefined_value      String
  random_delay          Integer
  shell                 String
  user                  String # default value: root
  weekday               Integer, String # default value: *
  action                Symbol # defaults to :create if not specified
end

where:

• cron_d is the resource.
• name is the name given to the resource block.
• action identifies which steps the chef-client will take to bring the node into the desired state.
• command, comment, cookbook, cron_name, day, environment, home, hour, mailto, minute, mode, month, path, predefined_value, random_delay, shell, user, and weekday are the properties available to this resource.

Actions

The cron_d resource has the following actions:

:create

Default. “Add a cron definition file to /etc/cron.d, but do not update an existing file.

:delete

Remove a cron definition file from /etc/cron.d if it exists.

:create_if_missing

Add a cron definition file to /etc/cron.d, but do not update an existing file.

:nothing

Define this resource block to do nothing until notified by another resource to take action. When this resource is notified, this resource block is either run immediately or it is queued up to be run at the end of the Chef Client run.

Properties

The cron_d resource has the following properties:

command

Ruby Type: String | REQUIRED

The command to be run, or the path to a file that contains the command to be run.

Some examples:

command if [ -x /usr/share/mdadm/checkarray ] && [ $(date +\%d) -le 7 ];
then /usr/share/mdadm/checkarray --cron --all --idle --quiet; fi

and:

command %w{
  cd /srv/opscode-community-site/current &&
  env RUBYLIB="/srv/opscode-community-site/current/lib"
  RAILS_ASSET_ID=`git rev-parse HEAD` RAILS_ENV="#{rails_env}"
  bundle exec rake cookbooks_report
}.join(' ')

and:

command "/srv/app/scripts/daily_report"

comment

Ruby Type: String

A comment to place in the cron.d file.

cookbook

Ruby Type: String

cron_name

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: 'name'

Set the name of the cron job. If this isn’t specified we’ll use the resource name.

day

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The day of month at which the cron entry should run (1 - 31).

environment

Ruby Type: Hash

A Hash containing additional arbitrary environment variables under which the cron job will be run in the form of ({"ENV_VARIABLE" => "VALUE"}). (These variables must exist for a command to be run successfully.)

home

Ruby Type: String

Set the HOME environment variable in the cron.d file.”

hour

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The hour at which the cron entry is to run (0 - 23).

ignore_failure

Ruby Type: true, false | Default Value: false

Continue running a recipe if a resource fails for any reason.

mailto

Ruby Type: String

Set the MAILTO environment variable in the cron.d file.

minute

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The minute at which the cron entry should run (0 - 59).

mode

Ruby Type: String, Integer | Default Value: 0600

month

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The month in the year on which a cron entry is to run (1 - 12).

notifies

Ruby Type: Symbol, ‘Chef::Resource[String]’

A resource may notify another resource to take action when its state changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action that resource should take, and then the :timer for that action. A resource may notify more than one resource; use a notifies statement for each resource to be notified.

A timer specifies the point during the Chef Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before

Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.

:delayed

Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of the Chef Client run.

:immediate, :immediately

Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.

The syntax for notifies is:

notifies :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

path

Ruby Type: String

Set the PATH environment variable in the cron.d file.

predefined_value

Ruby Type: String

Schedule your cron job with one of the special predefined value instead of ** * pattern. This correspond to “@reboot”, “@yearly”, “@annually”, “@monthly”, “@weekly”, “@daily”, “@midnight” or “@hourly”.

random_delay

Ruby Type: Integer

Set the RANDOM_DELAY environment variable in the cron.d file.

retries

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 0

The number of times to catch exceptions and retry the resource.

retry_delay

Ruby Type: Integer | Default Value: 2

The retry delay (in seconds).

shell

Ruby Type: String

Set the SHELL environment variable in the cron.d file.

subscribes

Ruby Type: Symbol, ‘Chef::Resource[String]’

A resource may listen to another resource, and then take action if the state of the resource being listened to changes. Specify a 'resource[name]', the :action to be taken, and then the :timer for that action.

Note that subscribes does not apply the specified action to the resource that it listens to - for example:

file '/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt' do
   mode '0600'
   owner 'root'
end

service 'nginx' do
   subscribes :reload, 'file[/etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt]', :immediately
end

In this case the subscribes property reloads the nginx service whenever its certificate file, located under /etc/nginx/ssl/example.crt, is updated. subscribes does not make any changes to the certificate file itself, it merely listens for a change to the file, and executes the :reload action for its resource (in this example nginx) when a change is detected.

A timer specifies the point during the Chef Client run at which a notification is run. The following timers are available:

:before

Specifies that the action on a notified resource should be run before processing the resource block in which the notification is located.

:delayed

Default. Specifies that a notification should be queued up, and then executed at the end of the Chef Client run.

:immediate, :immediately

Specifies that a notification should be run immediately, per resource notified.

The syntax for subscribes is:

subscribes :action, 'resource[name]', :timer

user

Ruby Type: String | Default Value: root

The name of the user that runs the command.

weekday

Ruby Type: Integer, String | Default Value: *

The day of the week on which this entry is to run (0-7, mon-sun, or *), where Sunday is both 0 and 7.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate various approaches for using resources in recipes

Run a program at a specified interval

cron_d 'noop' do
  hour '5'
  minute '0'
  command '/bin/true'
end

Run an entry if a folder exists

cron_d 'ganglia_tomcat_thread_max' do
  command "/usr/bin/gmetric
    -n 'tomcat threads max'
    -t uint32
    -v '/usr/local/bin/tomcat-stat
    --thread-max'"
  only_if { ::File.exist?('/home/jboss') }
end

Run every Saturday, 8:00 AM

The following example shows a schedule that will run every hour at 8:00 each Saturday morning, and will then send an email to “admin@example.com” after each run.

cron_d 'name_of_cron_entry' do
  minute '0'
  hour '8'
  weekday '6'
  mailto 'admin@example.com'
  action :create
end

Run only in November

The following example shows a schedule that will run at 8:00 PM, every weekday (Monday through Friday), but only in November:

cron_d 'name_of_cron_entry' do
  minute '0'
  hour '20'
  day '*'
  month '11'
  weekday '1-5'
  action :create
end