NAME

       bcron-update - Update system crontabs.

SYNOPSIS

       bcron-update path [ path ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       bcron-update  polls  the named files or directories periodically to see if there are any new, changed, or
       removed files.  When it detects changes, it mirrors those  changes  into  the  crontab  spool  directory.
       bcron-update  runs  as root in order to be able to read system files that would potentially be unreadable
       otherwise.

       On Debian, if path is a directory, bcron-update skips files in this directory  with  names  that  do  not
       solely  consist  of lower- and uppercase letters ('a'-'z', 'A'-'Z'), digits ('0'-'9'), underscores ('_'),
       and hyphens ('-').

EXAMPLES

       To mirror modern vixie-cron's behavior, use:
       bcron-update /etc/crontab /etc/cron.d

ENVIRONMENT

       BCRON_SPOOL
            The spool directory for bcron.  Defaults to /var/spool/cron.

       BCRON_USER
            After writing files and before moving them into  their  final  location,  bcron-update  changes  the
            ownership of the file to this user so that bcron-sched can read them.

SEE ALSO

       bcron-sched(8)

DIAGNOSTICS

       bcron-update outputs three different kinds of messages about actions it is taking.

       Rescanning /etc/cron.d
            The  named  directory has been modified, and will be scanned to determine what files have been added
            or deleted.

       -/etc/cron.d/oldfile
            The named file no longer exists and will be removed from the spool.

       +/etc/cron.d/newfile
            The named file was either created or modified since the last scan,  and  will  be  copied  into  the
            spool.

AUTHOR

       Bruce Guenter <bruce@untroubled.org>

                                                                                                 bcron-update(8)