Crons

The cron utility is a job scheduler on Unix-like operating systems. Cron is used to scheduling jobs (commands or shell scripts usually intended for system maintenance or administration) to run periodically at fixed times.

In Zebrabase, two jobs can be executed by cron:

• "retire" - retires animals older than a defined threshold
• "make productive" - the productivity of juveniles older than a defined threshold is updated to "Productive"

The cron logs the job's name, timing, outcome, and the number of updated substocks (if any). If the job cannot be executed an error message and additional details are logged. You can check the cron logs in Admin / Logs / Cron log.

The jobs are executed daily at a set hour. Four times a day the cron checks whether the configuration has been changed and (if needed) updates the action plan. If the configuration is set to null the job will not be executed (i.e. is inactive). You can find the cron configuration in Admin / Configuration.