[G4] MDD - Disc space issues

[Robert A. Rosenberg]

At 11:09 -0700 on 03/22/2008, Ronald Steinke wrote about Re: [G4] MDD 
- Disc space issues:

>I personally prefer Onyx to perform the daily, weekly, and monthly 
>maintenance programs. Cocktail is another program that will handle 
>those chores. Download and use whichever one you chose and use it 
>regularly for keeping your temp files under control.

Part of the problem that needs Cocktail or Onyx is that this function 
(ie: running the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance programs) is 
supposed to be being done automatically by CRON but CRON is designed 
for a 24/7 environment where the machine is running at 3AM (when 
these tasks are by default scheduled). If for any reason (such as the 
computer being powered off) CRON is unable to issue the command at 
the designated time, it forgets about issuing it when it can and just 
tries (and fails since it is not running) to issue it the next time 
the designated "issue at" criteria is met. A better design is to 
track if the command was issued and, if not, issue it when you get 
re-launched at boot-time. While there are some so-called CRON 
replacements, all that I have seen do not have CRON's ability to 
designate when during the day (and how often) the command is to be 
issued but only will fire off the command at Midnight or as soon 
after Midnight as the computer is powered on and running. I come from 
a IBM Mainframe background and Scheduling Programs (which is all CRON 
is) there track when a command is to be issued or a program run and 
if this can not be done at the designated time (due to the Scheduling 
Program not being active), this failure is noted and the event is 
done as soon as the Scheduling Program is re-launched.