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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 <bruceg@em.ca>

                                                               bcron-update(8)