[Techtalk] Age-old cron problem

[Nicoya Helm]

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [Techtalk] Age-old cron problem
> From: Conor Daly <c.daly at met.ie>
> Date: Mon, December 10, 2007 10:33 am
> To: techtalk at linuxchix.org
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 10, 2007 at 06:54:44AM -0700 or thereabouts, Nicoya Helm wrote:
> > 
> > I think I will try this approach: via script, write a date to a file
> > somewhere on the starting Sunday as a reference for a counter.  In that
> > same script, put in logic to increment the date counter by one (i.e.
> > day) then test to see if we have reached the max (14 days).  If we have,
> > run the required Every-Other-Sunday-action, then reset counter.  Rinse
> > and repeat.  This will still require a manual kick-off on the first
> > Sunday, but after that should run every 14 days, i.e. every other
> > Sunday.
> 
> You might consider 'date +"%U"' which gives a week (in the year) number.
> You could then test if the week number is odd or even and trigger on that.
> That avoids the possibility that a day could be missed pushing your script
> out to run on a Monday instead of Sunday...
>  
> Conor
> -- 
> 

I stumbled across a similar suggestion shortly after sending my last
email. Not sure how I missed it in my first searches, but it works well
- wish I'd thought of it myself :).  Here's what I tested (found at
http://sysunconfig.net/aixtips/cron_trick.txt)
____________________
WK=`date +%W`
ON_WK=`expr $WK % 2`

# to test for and execute on odd week, uncomment the =1 line
# to test for and execute on even week, uncomment the =0 line

#if [ $ON_WK = 1 ]
if [ $ON_WK = 0 ]
        then
        echo $BODY |mailx -s "test email" user at email.com
        
fi
____________________


~~~Nicoya...
---KC0VVR---
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." --George Eliot