CRON.TXT -- README file for cron.
==================================

Cron is a DOS/Windows version of the UNIX
cron program. This allows you to schedule tasks
quickly and easily.


How to install:
===========================================
Unzip cron.zip into any directory/folder on your
hard drive. Next, run the cron.exe file. Cron uses
the crontab.txt file by default, however, you can
give any other scheduling file on the command line.


How to use:
===========================================
The first thing you need is a crontab.txt file. This
file must be saved in the same directory as the cron.exe
program. The crontab.txt file should have the following
lay-out:

# This is a comment line.
1 -1 1 -1 -1 echo Running a task.


Any line in the crontab.txt file which begins with a "#"
is ignored. This is useful for inserting comments. All
other lines are command lines. Each command line gives
a specific time at which to perform it's command.
Time is measured in the following format:

Minute Hour Day Month Day-of-week

Minus one (-1) is used to mean any/all.
So for the above example, the command is run at
the first minute of any hour on the first day of any month
on any day of the week. Assuming that the parameters
match the current time/date, the command at the end of the line
is executed. In this case "echo Running a task." is run.

You can give as many command in a crontab.txt file as you wish.
You can even run bath files instead of normal commands. Please
note that each command is run one at a time.

Let's look at another example:

# test file for crontab
33 21 13 3 5 echo hello
-1 -1 13 3 5 echo all
-1 21 13 3 5 exit

This is the default crontab file. It performs the following
tasks:

At 9:33pm on the 13th day of the month of March on Thursday
the system is told to "echo hello".

Please note that Sunday is day 1 and Saturday is day 7.

At any minute of any hour on the 13th of March on a Thursday,
the system is told to "echo all".

Here comes the intersting part. Cron reconizes the command "exit"
as a command to itself. This allows you to shut down Cron at
any time without being near the keyboard. The exit is performed
imediately, so no commands are performed afterward.

So in this example, cron exits at any minute after 9:00pm on the
13th of March, assuming it is a Thursday. (Can you tell when I
was testing this?)



To uninstall cron:
=========================
To uninstall cron, delete the following files:
cron.exe         -- the cron program
crontab.txt      -- list of commands to execute
cron.txt         -- this file
cron.c           -- source code for cron program



Please feel free to use, change and copy cron at will. Any
suggestions or bug reports should be sent to
Jesse <slicer69@hotmail.com>
Pelase visit http://slicer69.tripod.com/code/
for furute updates.


