Launchd vs Cron

loren_ryter · 03-04-2006, 04:48 PM

I just found out about launchd replacing cron on tiger. I finally figured out how to use cron and now I find it's been replaced.

My questions are should cron now be avoided? Will it go the way of the dinosaurs?

What is a good method to write to launchd config files? I have an applescript studio application that after considerable effort can write and modify the user crontab file in order to schedule itself to run. I was always amazed how tricky that was to do. Maybe it's easier to do with launchd?

Is there any real reason to re-write this to use launchd instead of cron, or should I leave well enough alone?

Thanks.

UncleJohn · 03-04-2006, 06:25 PM

I don't think that cron will go the way of the dinosaurs anytime soon, since it's a basic feature of any Unix-based OS. It seems that launchd is just the preferred method for OS X now. If you want to play around with launchd, there's a free GUI front end called Lingon.

I had some issues getting launchd to do what I wanted (starting a screensaver over the login window), so went back to cron and it works fine.

giskard22 · 03-05-2006, 02:09 PM

With the initial 10.4 release, launchd's schedule task mechanism didn't work reliably (if at all). I think that's supposed to have improved, but there's nothing wrong with using cron. It's a hell of a lot easier, that's for sure. So many people use it, I don't see Apple trying to get rid of it any time soon.

03-04-2006, 04:48 PM	#1
loren_ryter Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 120	Launchd vs Cron I just found out about launchd replacing cron on tiger. I finally figured out how to use cron and now I find it's been replaced. My questions are should cron now be avoided? Will it go the way of the dinosaurs? What is a good method to write to launchd config files? I have an applescript studio application that after considerable effort can write and modify the user crontab file in order to schedule itself to run. I was always amazed how tricky that was to do. Maybe it's easier to do with launchd? Is there any real reason to re-write this to use launchd instead of cron, or should I leave well enough alone? Thanks.

03-04-2006, 06:25 PM	#2
UncleJohn Triple-A Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alexandria, VA Posts: 76	I don't think that cron will go the way of the dinosaurs anytime soon, since it's a basic feature of any Unix-based OS. It seems that launchd is just the preferred method for OS X now. If you want to play around with launchd, there's a free GUI front end called Lingon. I had some issues getting launchd to do what I wanted (starting a screensaver over the login window), so went back to cron and it works fine.

03-05-2006, 02:09 PM	#3
giskard22 Moderator Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 4,272	With the initial 10.4 release, launchd's schedule task mechanism didn't work reliably (if at all). I think that's supposed to have improved, but there's nothing wrong with using cron. It's a hell of a lot easier, that's for sure. So many people use it, I don't see Apple trying to get rid of it any time soon.