Periodic Scripts do not work

Question

Level 1

4 points

Periodic Scripts do not work

Hi,
I've tried to run the periodic maintenance scripts (daily, weekly, monthly...) in the terminal but the only thing that happens is that it gives following message to me: "No output from the 0 files processed".
I looked up the files (which are hidden...) and definitely the scripts are there.
The message I've mentioned above is a -more or less- planned error message of the periodic script. (You can find it in usr/sbin/periodic).
This also means that my Mac doesn't run those scripts automatically but it is possible to execute them with tools like OnyX or Cocktail.
I've tried to reinstall OS X and recovered my files from a TM Backup. Nothing changed, same error as before.
Does anybody know what's going on there? I searched the web but it seems I'm the very first user who's got this problem (should I be happy now? :)).
Thank you
Pro

MacBook Pro 2,4, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Sep 14, 2008 8:32 AM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Sep 14, 2008 8:50 AM in response to ProSpeed

just to make sure we are on the same page.

the command you are trying to run is

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

is this correct? I've never seen this error message. check the periodic logs in Console. they'll tell you if the commands are executed normally. also, exactly what kind of reinstall did you do? that should have fixed any problems you may have had.

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Answer 2

ProSpeed Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 15, 2008 12:49 AM in response to V.K.

Yep, it is the "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly" command.
I reinstalled my OS X like this: Disk in, delete everything and install new, ater installation "restore system by TM BackUp (You can see at the size of those files that it does not include the main system files but only the user files like programs etc.).
Next interesting thing: I've tried to execute the scripts again this morning and.... it works.
"15.09.08 09:32:14 sudo[244] myaccount : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/myaccount ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/periodic daily monthly weekly "

Seems like it is working now. It does never work the way it should when somebody is watching 😉
Maybe the error was -after the reinstall- a result of the "sudo periodic ALL" command. This does not work at all, only daily, weekly, monthly.

The error message i got is a result of this code within the periodic script (don't worry, i got it from a free UNIX distribution :)):
"...
done
done
if [ $empty = TRUE ]
then
if [ $empty_output = TRUE ]
then
[ $processed = 1 ] && plural= || plural=s
echo "No output from the $processed file$plural processed"
fi
else
echo ""
..."
I think my problem is solved but if anybody got an idea why it happened this way, I would be really interested in the explaination.

Thank you for trying to help me, I hope i can return the favor in a time.

Pro

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