A cron program is one which runs unattended jobs (not necessarily involving dynamite) on a computer at regular pre-set times.
The GNU package mcron (Mellor's cron) is a 100% compatible replacement for Vixie cron. It is written in pure Guile, and allows configuration files to be written in scheme (as well as the POSIX crontab format) for infinite flexibility in specifying when jobs should be run.
The package was originally conceived, developed and produced by DMBCS, and the copyright was assigned to GNU in the very early days, as it should form a key part of the GNU system performing regular house-keeping tasks. These days it is officially in the custodianship of the maintainers of the excellent GUIX distribution, in which it plays that key role. The GNU maintenance page is over here.
A historical white paper, reproduced here, describes the motivation and initial design concepts of mcron.
As an official part of the GNU system, mcron packages can be downloaded from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mcron/ and ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mcron/.
The current sources which we maintain at DMBCS can be downloaded by typing
git clone https://rdmp.org/dmbcs/mcron.git \
dmbcs-mcron at the
command line, and can be viewed online
at https://rdmp.org/cgit/mcron.scm.
Note that this repository is currently ahead of the official one,
though it offers no new features or fixes.
If you have use of guix git authenticate, then
git fetch origin keyring:keyring
guix git authenticate \
a9d16d8e7c902e178060b26cfd1f986b002669a2 \
"E23C 21ED 864F F4F3 A711 4CDF CA47 1FD5 0161 8A49"
will verify that the repository was made by the mcron
developers.
Our Guix channel descriptor is (this goes into your $HOME/.config/guix/channels.scm)
(channel
(name 'dmbcs-development)
(url "https://rdmp.org/dmbcs/guix-channel.git")
(branch "trunk")
(introduction
(make-channel-introduction
"2ea5ab7cc2408b316edfea947c5c522d57031758"
(openpgp-fingerprint
"E23C 21ED 864F F4F3 A711 4CDF CA47 1FD5 0161 8A49"))))
With this (after a guix pull), you can then import our version of Mcron into your profile with
guix install mcron@1.2.3+dmbcs
Documentation is an integral part of the mcron package. Once
installed, the user can type info mcron, man
mcron, or, in a pinch, mcron --help at the
command-line to get information in various amounts and
depths.
The full manual can be read online here.
Please click here if you wish to send us a message, for help or support, or even just to let us know that you are successfully using this software!
If you would like to receive e-mail notices of matters arising about this application, you may request this through the contact form.
We will happily consider contributions to the source code if you provide the address of a GIT repository we can pull from, and will consider all bug reports and feature requests made to the above contact form.
If you use this application please consider a bitcoin donation
if you can. A small amount informs us that there is interest
and that we are providing a useful service to the community; it
will keep us motivated to continue to make open source software.
Donations can be made by bitcoin to the address
1PWHez4zT2xt6PoyuAwKPJsgRznAKwTtF9. 
We are currently working on m2cron, the next-generation version of mcron which will eschew all Vixie compatibility in favour of massively streamlined code, will allow even more flexibility in scheduling jobs (they will be able to manipulate the job queue directly), and will provide for real-time interaction with a running m2cron daemon.
This effort will also release us from the shackles of GNU, where the original mcron project is being squandered by a cyber-squatter.
There is a funding.json manifest for the funding we seek to be able to realize this on-going development in a timely manner.
This web page Copyright © 2022, 2024 DM Bespoke Computer Solutions Ltd.
This page was last modified November, 2024
This page is https://rdmp.org/dmbcs/mcron.