Automating recurring tasks with Cron

Setup a crontab file which defines whe the task should run:

m h d M D /script

where:

m minute: 0-59
h hour: 0-23
d day of the month: 1-31
M month of the year: 1-12
D day of the week, Sunday-0, 0-6
/script the script to execute

Values that are not relevant can be replaced with a ‘*” character.

Examples:

Run scriptA at 1:00 am:


* 1 * * * /scriptA

Run scriptB at every 15 minutes past the hour:


15 * * * * /scriptB

Run scriptC on the hour and every 30 minutes past the hour:


0,30 * * * * /scriptC

Run scriptD at 10,11 and 12, every Monday:


* 10-12 * * 1 /scriptC

To install the crontab setings, run:


crontab filename

To list the current crontab settings:


crontab -l

IBM and BEA join together to submit JSR for cross App Server tools

As part of the Java Tools Community initiative announced in the news yesterday, IBM and BEA Systems have announced they have created 3 Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for 3 new technologies which will be developed using the Java Community Process (JCP) and will be implemented on both IBM Websphere as well as BEA Weblogic.

The 3 new specifications are:

  • Service Data Objects: will provide a common mechanism to pull data from multiple sources such as XML sources and databases
  • Timer for Application Servers, a mechanism for scheduling processing jobs
  • Work Manager for Application Servers, for setting up processing tasks in parallel

Industry analysts have commented that the omission of Sun in the group developing these new specifications is significant, and probably signifies the beginning end of Sun’s involvement in the development of new technologies based on Java technology. IBM and BEA are the dominant market players in the Application Server market space, and with this announcement are now together shaping new future technologies on the Java platform.

Java Tools Community forms to promote cross tool integration

Several major Java tools vendors, including Oracle and Sun, are forming a standards group in order to promote interoperability between different toolsets, and in particular, IDEs.

The move is seen as one attempt to promote and construct IDEs that are comparable in functionality to Microsoft’s VisualStudio.NET – last year at JavaOne Sun made several statements refering to the need to reduce development complexity in the Java API arena, and produce quality tool sets.

This group may be looking at the ability to build a common add-on framework so that most IDEs can share add-ons and plug-ins.