Puppet module to manage cron jobs in a tidy way

Table of Contents

1. Description
2. Setup - The basics of getting started with cron
3. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
4. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how
5. Limitations - OS compatibility, etc.
6. Development - Guide for contributing to the module

Description

This module is an interface for cron jobs with the main idea to be tidy. That means that any jobs that are not managed should not exist. Once you switch all cron jobs to this module, simply removing the definition is sufficient without worrying about setting ensure => disable and waiting for changes to propagate.

Setup

Beginning with cron

To start out with cron:

include cron

This will start purging all unmanaged cron resources and also make sure the 'cron' package is installed and the service is running.

WARNING #1: All existing unmanaged cron jobs will be purged!

Usage

Also manage /etc/cron.d directory

class { 'cron':
  purge_crond => true,
}

Wipe it all out

class { 'cron':
  ensure => absent,
}

cron::job example

cron::job { 'backup':
  user     => 'backup', # default: 'root'
  minute   => '3-59/5',
  hour     => '9-17',
  monthday => '*/2',
  month    => [ 4, 8, 12 ],
  weekday  => '0-4',
}

Custom Cron::* time types are a lot stricter than builtin cron ones. Careful - this may break existing cron jobs you are converting.

cron::whitelist example

cron::whitelist { 'pkg_backup': }

This will make /etc/cron.d/pkg_backup immune, and keep the file's contents untouched.

Reference

Classes

Public Classes

• cron: Main entry point into all cron-related resources on the host. It purges by default. You've been warned!

Private Classes

• cron::config: Various cron configuration files
• cron::install: This class handles cron packages.
• cron::purge: This is where all the purging magic happens. Purge unmanaged cron jobs and also, optionally, purge /etc/cron.d directory.
• cron::remove: This class handles removal of all cron-related resources.
• cron::service: This class handles cron service.

Defined types

• cron::job: Cron job defined type with a bit of magic dust sprinkled all over.
• cron::whitelist: Use this to whitelist any system cron jobs you don't want this module to touch. This will make sure /etc/cron.d/${title} won't get deleted

Functions

• cron::prep4cron: This functions prepares any cron::job custom timing value to be used as Puppet internal cron's resource argument

Custom Types

• Cron::Minute
• Cron::Hour
• Cron::Monthday
• Cron::Month
• Cron::Weekday

More information

Parameters, examples, and more: REFERENCE.

Limitations

• Made for and tested only on the following Ubuntu distributions:
  • 14.04
  • 16.04
  • 18.04 (currently tested in Docker containers)
• Cron::* custom types are strict!
• All cron jobs managed by built-in cron type are fair play. They won't be purged as long as they're in the catalog. But using this module's cron::job type does have its advantages.

Development

I'll be happy to know you're using this for one reason or the other. And if you want to contribute - even better. Feel free to submit an issue / fire up a PR / whatever.

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[0.4.0] - 2018-03-05

Added

• Acceptance testing on Ubuntu 18.04.
• Acceptance tests for cron::job.
• REFERENCE.md generated using puppet-strings.

Changed

• Travis configuration prettified.
• Documentation cleanups.
• Acceptance tests split up into multiple spec files.

Fixed

• Removal order that led to (through a chain of other events) a non-working ensure => absent on Ubuntu 18.04.
• Proper trailing newline handling for /etc/cron.allow and /etc/cron.deny.

[0.3.0] - 2017-12-21

Added

• The Changelog.
• $::cron::purge_noop parameter that disables crontab purging (but you'll still see noop notices).
• $::cron::allowed_users and $::cron::denied_users parameters that manage users thru cron.allow and cron.deny files.

Changed

• A few more acceptance tests.
• Idempotence tests refactored.
• Adding/removing cron entries does not reload the cron service anymore.
• Cron::Minute and Cron::Hour now accept ranges and patterns like */2 inside an array.
• Because of the previous change, cron::prep4cron function doesn't sort the array anymore, it simply throws away repeated values.
• All Cron:: types accept a minimum of 2 array elements instead of 1.
• Updated tests for Cron:: types as rspec-puppet now supports these natively. w00h00!
• Added require ::cron to the cron::job define. It is now not necessary to include it. Beware though, that this might break if you don't have any cron jobs defined. No purging for you then!

Fixed

• Updated documentation for cron::prep4cron() function.

[0.2.0] - 2017-02-10

Added

• This is the first clean release of the cron module.

Changed

• Removed all incron references (this used to be cron + incron module).

[0.1.0] - 2017-02-08 [YANKED]

Added

• This used to be cron + incron module. After reading lots of suggestions about single-purposeness of modules, I decided to split this module into two and make this a pure cron-only one.
• This is the last point where you can check the previous approach.
• Doesn't seem feasible to release this, hence the [YANKED] tag.