Scheduler

crond scans the CRONTAB file every minute and checks every line to determine if the specified time/date information matches the current time/date. If they are equal, the command line specified will be executed.

Enabling cron can be done via web interface via the Admin>Services tab.

Toggling this radio button will change the following configuration entry in /etc/xap-livebox.ini with 1 being enabled and missing or 0 being disabled.

[cron]
enable=1

To make sure you are running cron in the right timezone you'll need to setup the /etc/TZ file.

# echo GMT0BST-1 >/etc/TZ

If you are on the EAST coast of the US you would use

# echo EST5EDT4 >/etc/TZ

See for more examples http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/system

You create and configure your crontab entries by using the crontab command line program. The command “crontab -e” will open the editor vi by default.

# crontab
BusyBox v1.12.1 (2011-11-30 14:38:56 EST) multi-call binary

Usage: crontab [-c DIR] [-u USER] [-ler]|[FILE]

        -c      Crontab directory
        -u      User
        -l      List crontab
        -e      Edit crontab
        -r      Delete crontab
        FILE    Replace crontab by FILE ('-': stdin)

They will be created and stored in /etc/crontabs if you wish to back them up.

There are several helper scripts that allow you to send xAP messages.

• bscmsg - will send an xAPBSC.cmd message
• aliasmsg - will send a class=alias payload in keeping with xap-googlecal and xap-twitter behaviour. This can be in turn processed by an alias Lua plugboard applet.

Both of these scripts are written in Lua and are installed into /usr/bin on your system, so you can browse the source and use them as starters for your own scripts.

For example aliasmsg will send this message with %s being substituted for the argument you supply to the script.

xap-header
{
class=alias
}
command
{
text=%s
}

A sample crontab might look like. Using bscmsg we are turning an RF unit On at 7:00am and Off an 7:01am, transposing this to 8am and using the aliasmsg script we can do a similar thing.

0 7 * * * bscmsg -t dbzoo.livebox.controller:rf.1 -s on
1 7 * * * bscmsg -t dbzoo.livebox.controller:rf.1 -s off
0 8 * * * aliasmsg "rf 1 on"
1 8 * * * aliasmsg "rf 1 off"

Want to wake a machine using Wake-on-LAN? This entry would send a WoL packet to the specified MAC address at 7am Mon-Fri.

0 7 * * 1-5 ether-wake -i br0 3c:d9:2b:5b:67:c2

The helper scripts can be run from the command line to test that you have got the correct syntax before putting this same command line string into a crontab.

# bscmsg
bscmsg:missing required parameter: t

  Various flags and option types
    -t (string)   xAPBSC Target
    -s (onoff)    xAPBSC State
    -x            xAPBSC Text
    -l            xAPBSC Level
#

Kinda obvious, but when testing, be sure to check that the date on your Livebox is correctly set. At the command prompt 'date' will show you the current date/time.