Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
PERIODIC.CONF(5)	       File Formats Manual		PERIODIC.CONF(5)

NAME
     periodic.conf -- periodic job configuration information

DESCRIPTION
     The  file	periodic.conf  contains  a  description of how daily, weekly and
     monthly  system  maintenance  jobs  should  run.	 It   resides	in   the
     /etc/defaults  directory  and parts may be overridden by a file of the same
     name   in	 /etc,	 which	  itself    may    be	 overridden    by    the
     /etc/periodic.conf.local file.

     The  periodic.conf  file is actually sourced as a shell script from each of
     the periodic scripts and is intended to simply provide  default  configura-
     tion variables.

     The following variables are used by periodic(8) itself:

	 local_periodic
	     (str)  List  of  directories  to search for periodic scripts.  This
	     list is always prefixed with /etc/periodic, and is only  used  when
	     an argument to periodic(8) is not an absolute directory name.

	 <dir>_output
	     (path  or	list) What to do with the output of the scripts executed
	     from the directory dir.  If this variable is  set	to  an	absolute
	     path  name, output is logged to that file, otherwise it is taken as
	     one or more space separated email addresses  and  mailed  to  those
	     users.   If this variable is not set or is empty, output is sent to
	     standard output.

	     For  an  unattended  machine,  suitable  values  for  daily_output,
	     weekly_output,  and  monthly_output  might be "/var/log/daily.log",
	     "/var/log/weekly.log", and "/var/log/monthly.log" respectively,  as
	     newsyslog(8) will rotate these files (if they exists) at the appro-
	     priate times.

	 <dir>_show_success

	 <dir>_show_info

	 <dir>_show_badconfig
	     (bool)  These  variables  control whether periodic(8) will mask the
	     output of the executed scripts based on their  return  code  (where
	     dir  is  the base directory name in which each script resides).  If
	     the return code of a script is `0' and <dir>_show_success is set to
	     "NO", periodic(8) will mask the script's  output.	 If  the  return
	     code  of  a script is `1' and <dir>_show_info is set to "NO", peri-
	     odic(8) will mask the script's output.  If the  return  code  of  a
	     script  is `2' and <dir>_show_badconfig is set to "NO", periodic(8)
	     will mask the script's output.  If these variables are set to  nei-
	     ther  "YES" nor "NO", they default to "YES", "YES" and "NO" respec-
	     tively.

	     Refer to the periodic(8) manual page for how  script  return  codes
	     are interpreted.

     The  following  variables	are  used by the standard scripts that reside in
     /etc/periodic/daily:

	 daily_clean_disks_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if  you  want	to  remove  all  files	matching
	     daily_clean_disks_files daily.

	 daily_clean_disks_files
	     (str) Set to a list of file names to match.  Wild cards are permit-
	     ted.

	 daily_clean_disks_days
	     (num) When daily_clean_disks_enable is set to "YES", this must also
	     be set to the number of days old that a file's access and modifica-
	     tion times must be before it is deleted.

	 daily_clean_disks_verbose
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want the removed files to be reported in
	     your daily output.

	 daily_clean_tmps_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  if  you want to clear temporary directories
	     daily.

	 daily_clean_tmps_dirs
	     (str)   Set   to	the   list   of   directories	to   clear    if
	     daily_clean_tmps_enable is set to "YES".

	 daily_clean_tmps_days
	     (num) When daily_clean_tmps_enable is set, this must also be set to
	     the  number of days old that a file's access and modification times
	     must be before it is deleted.

	 daily_clean_tmps_ignore
	     (str) Set to the list of files that  should  not  be  deleted  when
	     daily_clean_tmps_enable  is set to "YES".	Wild card characters are
	     permitted.

	 daily_clean_tmps_verbose
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want the removed files to be reported in
	     your daily output.

	 daily_clean_preserve_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  if  you  wish  to	remove	old  files  from
	     /var/preserve.

	 daily_clean_preserve_days
	     (num) Set to the number of days that files must not have been modi-
	     fied before they are deleted.

	 daily_clean_preserve_verbose
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want the removed files to be reported in
	     your daily output.

	 daily_clean_msgs_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you wish old system messages to be purged.

	 daily_clean_msgs_days
	     (num) Set to the number of days that files must not have been modi-
	     fied  before they are deleted.  If this variable is left blank, the
	     msgs(1) default is used.

	 daily_clean_rwho_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you wish old files in /var/who to be purged.

	 daily_clean_rwho_days
	     (num) Set to the number of days that files must not have been modi-
	     fied before they are deleted.

	 daily_clean_rwho_verbose
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want the removed files to be reported in
	     your daily output.

	 daily_clean_hoststat_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to run  sendmail  -bH	to  automatically  purge
	     stale  entries from sendmail(8)'s host status cache.  Files will be
	     deleted using the same criteria as sendmail(8) would  normally  use
	     when determining whether to believe the cached information, as con-
	     figured in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf.

	 daily_backup_passwd_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  if  you  want  the  /etc/master.passwd  and
	     /etc/group files backed up and reported on.  Reporting consists  of
	     checking  both files for modifications and running chkgrp(8) on the
	     group file.

	 daily_backup_aliases_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want the /etc/mail/aliases  file  backed
	     up and modifications to be displayed in your daily output.

	 daily_calendar_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run calendar -a daily.

	 daily_accounting_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  if you want to rotate your daily accounting
	     files.  No rotations are necessary unless accounting_enable is  en-
	     abled in rc.conf(5).

	 daily_accounting_compress
	     (bool)  Set  to "YES" if you want your daily accounting files to be
	     compressed using gzip(1).

	 daily_accounting_save
	     (num) When daily_accounting_enable is set, this may also be set  to
	     the number of daily accounting files that are to be saved.  The de-
	     fault is "3".

	 daily_accounting_flags
	     (str)  Set  to the arguments to pass to the sa(8) utility (in addi-
	     tion to -s) when daily_accounting_enable is set to "YES".	The  de-
	     fault is -q.

	 daily_news_expire_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run /etc/news.expire.

	 daily_status_disks_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES" if you want to run df(1) (with the arguments
	     supplied in daily_status_disks_df_flags) and dump -W.

	 daily_status_disks_df_flags
	     (str)  Set  to  the  arguments   for   the   df(1)   utility   when
	     daily_status_disks_enable is set to "YES".

	 daily_status_ata_raid_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES" if you want to run atacontrol status on your
	     ataraid(4) arrays.

	 daily_status_gmirror_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run gmirror status on your gmir-
	     ror(8) devices.

	 daily_status_graid3_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you  want  to  run	graid3	status	on  your
	     graid3(8) devices.

	 daily_status_gstripe_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  if  you  want to run gstripe status on your
	     gstripe(8) devices.

	 daily_status_gconcat_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run gconcat status on your gcon-
	     cat(8) devices.

	 daily_status_network_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run netstat -i.

	 daily_status_network_usedns
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run netstat(1)	without  the  -n
	     option (to do DNS lookups).

	 daily_status_rwho_enable
	     (bool)  Set to "YES" if you want to run uptime(1) (or ruptime(1) if
	     rwhod_enable is set to "YES" in /etc/rc.conf).

	 daily_status_mailq_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run mailq(1).

	 daily_status_mailq_shorten
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to shorten the mailq(1) output when
	     daily_status_mailq_enable is set to "YES".

	 daily_status_include_submit_mailq
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you also want to run mailq(1) on the  submit
	     mail  queue  when	daily_status_mailq_enable is set to "YES".  This
	     may not work with MTAs other than sendmail(8).

	 daily_status_security_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to run the security check.  The se-
	     curity check is another set of periodic(8) scripts.  The system de-
	     faults are in  /etc/periodic/security.   Local  scripts  should  be
	     placed  in  /usr/local/etc/periodic/security.   See the periodic(8)
	     manual page for more information.

	 daily_status_security_inline
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want the security check  output  inline.
	     The  default  is  to either mail or log the output according to the
	     value of daily_status_security_output.

	 daily_status_security_output
	     (str)  Where  to  send  the  output  of  the  security   check   if
	     daily_status_security_inline is set to "NO".  This variable behaves
	     in  the  same way as the *_output variables above, namely it can be
	     set either to one or more email addresses or to  an  absolute  file
	     name.

	 daily_status_security_diff_flags
	     (str) Set to the arguments to pass to the diff(1) utility when gen-
	     erating differences.  The default is -b -u.

	 daily_status_security_chksetuid_enable
	     (bool)  Set to "YES" to compare the modes and modification times of
	     setuid executables with the previous day's values.

	 daily_status_security_chkmounts_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to check for changes mounted  file  systems  to
	     the previous day's values.

	 daily_status_security_noamd
	     (bool)  Set  to "YES" if you want to ignore amd(8) mounts when com-
	     paring   against	yesterday's   file   system   mounts   in    the
	     daily_status_security_chkmounts_enable check.

	 daily_status_security_chkuid0_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to "YES" to check /etc/master.passwd for accounts with
	     UID 0.

	 daily_status_security_passwdless_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to check /etc/master.passwd for  accounts  with
	     empty passwords.

	 daily_status_security_logincheck_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  to check /etc/login.conf ownership, see lo-
	     gin.conf(5) for more information.

	 daily_status_security_ipfwdenied_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to show  log  entries	for  packets  denied  by
	     ipfw(8) since yesterday's check.

	 daily_status_security_ipfdenied_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  to  show  log entries for packets denied by
	     ipf(8) since yesterday's check.

	 daily_status_security_pfdenied_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to show log entries for packets denied by pf(4)
	     since yesterday's check.

	 daily_status_security_ipfwlimit_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to display  ipfw(8)  rules  that  have  reached
	     their verbosity limit.

	 daily_status_security_kernelmsg_enable
	     (bool)  Set to "YES" to show new dmesg(8) entries since yesterday's
	     check.

	 daily_status_security_loginfail_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to display failed logins from /var/log/messages
	     in the previous day.

	 daily_status_security_tcpwrap_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" to display connections  denied  by  tcpwrappers
	     (see  hosts_access(5))  from  /var/log/messages during the previous
	     day.

	 daily_status_mail_rejects_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to summarise mail rejections logged
	     to /var/log/maillog for the previous day.

	 daily_status_mail_rejects_logs
	     (num) Set to the number of maillog files that should be checked for
	     yesterday's mail rejects.

	 daily_status_named_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to summarise denied zone  transfers
	     (AXFR and IXFR) for the previous day.

	 daily_status_named_usedns
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to enable reverse DNS lookups.

	 daily_status_ntpd
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to enable NTP status check.

	 daily_queuerun_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to "YES" if you want to manually run the mail queue at
	     least once a day.

	 daily_submit_queuerun
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you also want to  manually	run  the  submit
	     mail queue at least once a day when daily_queuerun_enable is set to
	     "YES".

	 daily_local
	     (str)  Set  to a list of extra scripts that should be run after all
	     other daily scripts.  All scripts must be absolute path names.

     The following variables are used by the standard  scripts	that  reside  in
     /etc/periodic/weekly:

	 weekly_locate_enable
	     (bool)	Set	to     "YES"	 if	you    want    to    run
	     /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb.  This script is run using nice -5  as
	     user  "nobody",  and generates the table used by the locate(1) com-
	     mand.

	 weekly_whatis_enable
	     (bool)    Set    to    "YES"     if     you     want     to     run
	     /usr/libexec/makewhatis.local.   This  script regenerates the data-
	     base used by the apropos(1) command.

	 weekly_catman_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to  run  /usr/libexec/catman.local.
	     This script processes all out of date manual pages, speeding up the
	     man(1) command at the expense of disk space.

	 weekly_noid_enable
	     (bool)  Set  to  "YES"  if you want to locate orphaned files on the
	     system.  An orphaned file is one with an invalid owner or group.

	 weekly_noid_dirs
	     (str) A list of directories under which orphaned files are searched
	     for.  This would usually be set to /.

	 weekly_status_pkg_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to use pkg_version(1) to  list  in-
	     stalled packages which are out of date.

	 pkg_version
	     (str)  When weekly_status_pkg_enable is set to "YES", this variable
	     specifies the program that is used to determine  the  out	of  date
	     packages.	If unset, the pkg_version(1) program is used.  As an ex-
	     ample,   this  variable  might  be  set  to  "portversion"  if  the
	     ports/sysutils/portupgrade port has been installed.

	 pkg_version_index
	     (str) This variable specifies the INDEX file from	/usr/ports  that
	     should  be used by pkg_version(1).  Because the dependency tree may
	     be substantially different between versions of FreeBSD,  there  may
	     be more than one INDEX file in /usr/ports.

	     Note,  if the pkg_version variable is set to "portversion", it will
	     also be necessary to arrange that the correct INDEX file is  speci-
	     fied  using  environment  variables  and  that pkg_version_index is
	     cleared in /etc/periodic.conf ("pkg_version_index=").

	 weekly_local
	     (str) Set to a list of extra scripts that should be run  after  all
	     other weekly scripts.  All scripts must be absolute path names.

     The  following  variables	are  used by the standard scripts that reside in
     /etc/periodic/monthly:

	 monthly_accounting_enable
	     (bool) Set to "YES" if you want to do login  accounting  using  the
	     ac(8) command.

	 monthly_local
	     (str)  Set  to a list of extra scripts that should be run after all
	     other monthly scripts.  All scripts must be absolute path names.

FILES
     /etc/defaults/periodic.conf  The default  configuration  file.   This  file
				  contains all default variables and values.

     /etc/periodic.conf 	  The  usual  system  specific variable override
				  file.

     /etc/periodic.conf.local	  An  additional  override  file,  useful   when
				  /etc/periodic.conf is shared or distributed.

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1),   calendar(1),  df(1),  diff(1),  gzip(1),  locate(1),  man(1),
     msgs(1), netstat(1), nice(1),  pkg_version(1),  login.conf(5),  rc.conf(5),
     ac(8), chkgrp(8), dump(8), newsyslog(8), periodic(8), sendmail(8)

HISTORY
     The periodic.conf file appeared in FreeBSD 4.1.

AUTHORS
     Brian Somers <brian@Awfulhak.org>

FreeBSD 8.0			  May 12, 2007			PERIODIC.CONF(5)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=periodic.conf&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+8.0-RELEASE>

home | help