Re: Programming terminology - definitions requested

[Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca>]

Laura A Mac Lemale wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm documenting two internal systems ... I'm noticing some frequently-used terminology
> that I want to clarify. ...
> 
> Can someone shed some light on the following terms:
> 
> cron (process?)
> trigger
> sequel (SQL)

I pronounce "SQL" as "Sequel" and think this usage is fairly widespread, though I've
also heard "ess kyew ell".

cron(1) is a standard (since the 70s) Unix command to run programs at specified times.
It is driven by one or more tables, crontab(5). The little numbers in brackets indicate
what section of the Unix manuals these are documented in. e.g. to get the man page
for cron(5), type "man 5 crontab".

Lines in a crontab(5) just contain commands preceded by selectors that say when
to execute them. You can select by day of week, day of month, hour or minute.
Using "*" to mean any and combining selectors, it's fairly easy to run a backup
every morning at 2:17 and accounting summaries on the first of every month and ...

There's also a simpler scheduling command, at(1). It just schedules a command to
run once at(1) some specified time.

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