Maintenace routines in Snow Leopard

I did find this, however

But is there a way to tell when last run in console?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319?viewlocale=en_US

Thanks, exactly what I was looking for. I knew SL is suppose to handle without the need for a 3rd party app, but I wanted to see when last ran.
Daily and Weekly have been running pretty much like clockwork. The montly hasn't run since December. I am assuming that SL will trigger it at some point when it hasn't run..

in looking at the console log, I see that it was last run December:
Sun Dec 26 18:17:03 EST 2010

I was able to find this kbase:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319?viewlocale=en_US

Mac OS X v10.6 and later information

In Mac OS X v10.6 and later, background maintenance tasks that do not run when the computer is asleep are run after it wakes from sleep mode.

*MINE is usually shut down and not in sleep, so maybe that is why it has not run*



For more advanced information, visit these developer webpages:

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/periodic.8.html
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/m an5/launchd.plist.5.html
Mac OS X v10.4 and v10.5
If your computer is shut down or in sleep at the designated times, the maintenance does not occur. In this situation, you may wish to force the maintenance tasks to run. There are two options: Use a third-party application or Terminal.

Use a third-party application

Some third-party applications may allow you to run these tasks whenever you wish. Four examples include:

Macaroni by Thomas Harrington
Mac Janitor by Brian R. Hill
CronMaster by Dan Klein
weRclean by Parental Advisory
You can search for these or other solutions at VersionTracker ( http://www.versiontracker.com/).

Use the Terminal (advanced)

Note: As mentioned above, these steps are not necessary in Mac OS X v10.6 or later.

+Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).+
+Type: sudo periodic daily+

+Tip: Typing "daily" runs tasks normally scheduled for a daily interval. Type "monthly" or "weekly" in place of "daily" to runs tasks scheduled for those intervals. Weekly tasks usually require a longer time to run than others.+

Press Return.
Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
Quit Terminal when the task is complete.
Additional Information
The tasks are scheduled for 03:15 to 05:30 in your computer's local time zone. This is described further in "Mac OS X: Unexplained Disk Activity Produced by 'find' Process." These tasks do not run if the computer is shut down or in sleep mode. If the tasks do not run, it is possible that certain log files (such as system.log) may become very large in Mac OS X v10.5 or earlier.


*Do you think this option to enter these commands in terminal for 10.6.6 still works?*

The 10.6 part suggests that, since my computer is shut down normally, the task are not running but "something" should trigger them (I suppose log size) to run if that is the case.
I note the 10.5 part says you might have to run them manually..

thoughts?

Thanks for helping. It looks like they are running. Researching a little futher: I have +another MBP running SL+ (different) and checked out the logs in Console to find that the Monthly on that one ran in March, but previous to that hadn't run since October, but the daily and weekly were run recently. It would appear that if the Mac is OFF during that time frame, a script that was suppose to run doesn't. But, if the Mac was in SLEEP MODE, then when it wakes it will run that script that was suppose to run.
I would guess that if ever the files get to big, SL would then run the task regardless. No proof of that, but that is kind of inferred between the lines on that kbase article I found.

Question, however, do the terminal command that are listed in that kbase for 10.4 and 10.5, still work on 10.6? I ask only because that kbase says for SL it is not need (not needed= not work?)

My test will be to put it into sleep on the last day of the month, and see if it runs when I open it up on the 1st..

thoughts?

Message was edited by: powerbook1701

sorry, yes the report says it was working. I worked it into my previous post, but didn't do a very clear explanation.
Now that I have really been digging:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/periodic.8.html

DESCRIPTION
The periodic utility is intended to be called by launchd(8) to execute shell scripts located in the
specified directory.

One or more of the following arguments must be specified:

daily Perform the standard daily periodic executable run. This usually occurs early in the morning (local time).

weekly Perform the standard weekly periodic executable run. This usually occurs very early on Satur-day mornings.

*monthly Perform the standard monthly periodic executable run. This usually occurs on the first day of the month*
-----------------------

The others seem to run when Mac is a sleep and wake after the said time, but no if it is shut down. Looks like the final test will be March 31st into April 1st (hopefully I won't be the fool).

Message was edited by: powerbook1701

thanks for your help (and I marked green stars and all). I was a bit concerned that something may be ary until I saw that my other MBP had far, far apart runs of the montly script.

If you check yours, are your montly running on time in the log? But I guess this depends on if you sleep or close down completely compared to me.