Debian Bug report logs - #866041
anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Francesco Poli (wintermute)" <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2017 23:50:51 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: anacron
Version: 2.3-24
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

Hello,
I see that bug #744753 has been solved by changing the frequency at
which anacron checks whether there are jobs to be executed.
When systemd is PID 1, anacron performs this check hourly via
timer, rather than daily at 7:30, as done on boxes where systemd is
*not* PID 1 (/etc/cron.d/anacron).

This behavior change has a significant side effect: if the box
is up and running at midnight, anacron may begin to execute
daily (and possibly also weekly or monthly) jobs shortly after.
Maybe it will (attempt to) start a backup or something like that,
after midnight, when it could be time to shut the box down...

This is inconsistent with the old behavior and with the behavior
of boxes with non-systemd init systems (where the check is performed
at boot or daily at 7:30, if the box is up and running at that time
of the day).

With the attached patch, the behavior becomes consistent with
the non-systemd one. Thanks to the Persistent=true directive,
any skipped checks will be catched up on boot or on resume,
but the check won't be performed between midnight and 7:30,
unless the box is booted/resumed in that time interval.

I hope this patch may be accepted.

Thanks for your time!
Bye.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (800, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages anacron depends on:
ii  debianutils          4.8.1.1
ii  init-system-helpers  1.48
ii  libc6                2.24-12
ii  lsb-base             9.20161125

Versions of packages anacron recommends:
ii  cron [cron-daemon]           3.0pl1-128+b1
ii  rsyslog [system-log-daemon]  8.27.0-3

Versions of packages anacron suggests:
ii  exim4-daemon-light [mail-transport-agent]  4.89-3
pn  powermgmt-base                             <none>

-- no debconf information

[anacron.diff (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #10 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Marc Haber <mh+debian-bugs@zugschlus.de>

To: 866041@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#866041: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:13:49 +0200

On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 11:50:51PM +0200, Francesco Poli (wintermute) wrote:
> With the attached patch, the behavior becomes consistent with
> the non-systemd one. Thanks to the Persistent=true directive,
> any skipped checks will be catched up on boot or on resume,
> but the check won't be performed between midnight and 7:30,
> unless the box is booted/resumed in that time interval.

Agreed. This is a big surprise and a huge behavioral change, introduced
less than a month before the stretch release.  Please return to the old
behavior ASAP in the next point release.

Greetings
Marc

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header
Leimen, Germany    |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421

Message #15 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

To: 866041@bugs.debian.org, "Francesco Poli (wintermute)" <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:16:52 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Mon, 26 Jun 2017 23:50:51 +0200 "Francesco Poli (wintermute)"
<invernomuto@paranoici.org> wrote:
> Package: anacron
> Version: 2.3-24
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
> 
> Hello,
> I see that bug #744753 has been solved by changing the frequency at
> which anacron checks whether there are jobs to be executed.
> When systemd is PID 1, anacron performs this check hourly via
> timer, rather than daily at 7:30, as done on boxes where systemd is
> *not* PID 1 (/etc/cron.d/anacron).
> 
> This behavior change has a significant side effect: if the box
> is up and running at midnight, anacron may begin to execute
> daily (and possibly also weekly or monthly) jobs shortly after.
> Maybe it will (attempt to) start a backup or something like that,
> after midnight, when it could be time to shut the box down...

If you run a backup via cron you should guard it against accidental
shutdown in any case. systemd-inhibit is the tool you might want to look
into.

> This is inconsistent with the old behavior and with the behavior
> of boxes with non-systemd init systems (where the check is performed
> at boot or daily at 7:30, if the box is up and running at that time
> of the day).


> With the attached patch, the behavior becomes consistent with
> the non-systemd one. Thanks to the Persistent=true directive,
> any skipped checks will be catched up on boot or on resume,
> but the check won't be performed between midnight and 7:30,
> unless the box is booted/resumed in that time interval.

Afaics, this would basically reopen #744753.
Take a laptop for example, which is charged over night and then booted
in the morning while unplugged. We'd never trigger anacron because of
ConditionACPower=true in anacron.service
By triggering anacron.service hourly it's much more likely we hit a time
window where the system is plugged in.

-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #20 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

To: 866041@bugs.debian.org, "Francesco Poli (wintermute)" <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:52:36 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Am 29.06.2017 um 00:16 schrieb Michael Biebl:
> On Mon, 26 Jun 2017 23:50:51 +0200 "Francesco Poli (wintermute)"
> <invernomuto@paranoici.org> wrote:
>> Package: anacron
>> Version: 2.3-24
>> Severity: normal
>> Tags: patch
>>
>> Hello,
>> I see that bug #744753 has been solved by changing the frequency at
>> which anacron checks whether there are jobs to be executed.
>> When systemd is PID 1, anacron performs this check hourly via
>> timer, rather than daily at 7:30, as done on boxes where systemd is
>> *not* PID 1 (/etc/cron.d/anacron).
>>
>> This behavior change has a significant side effect: if the box
>> is up and running at midnight, anacron may begin to execute
>> daily (and possibly also weekly or monthly) jobs shortly after.
>> Maybe it will (attempt to) start a backup or something like that,
>> after midnight, when it could be time to shut the box down...
> 
> If you run a backup via cron you should guard it against accidental
> shutdown in any case. systemd-inhibit is the tool you might want to look
> into.

I also want to add that in older releases anacron was triggered on
resume and AC changes (via the pm-utils hooks).

So you didn't necessarly have a fixed time when anacron (and possibly
such a backup script) runs.


-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #25 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

To: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

Cc: 866041@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 19:52:10 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:16:52 +0200 Michael Biebl wrote:

> On Mon, 26 Jun 2017 23:50:51 +0200 "Francesco Poli (wintermute)"
> <invernomuto@paranoici.org> wrote:
[...]
> > This is inconsistent with the old behavior and with the behavior
> > of boxes with non-systemd init systems (where the check is performed
> > at boot or daily at 7:30, if the box is up and running at that time
> > of the day).
> 
> 
> > With the attached patch, the behavior becomes consistent with
> > the non-systemd one. Thanks to the Persistent=true directive,
> > any skipped checks will be catched up on boot or on resume,
> > but the check won't be performed between midnight and 7:30,
> > unless the box is booted/resumed in that time interval.
> 
> Afaics, this would basically reopen #744753.
> Take a laptop for example, which is charged over night and then booted
> in the morning while unplugged. We'd never trigger anacron because of
> ConditionACPower=true in anacron.service
> By triggering anacron.service hourly it's much more likely we hit a time
> window where the system is plugged in.

Fair enough.

What about the attached patch?

It would at least exclude the time interval between midnight and early
morning, while retaining the hourly-repeated-attempts behavior from
07:30 to 23:30.

 


-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/
 There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE

[anacron.diff (text/x-diff, attachment)]

[Message part 3 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #30 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Marc Haber <mh+debian-bugs@zugschlus.de>

To: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>, 866041@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

Subject: Re: Bug#866041: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2017 20:50:02 +0200

I have done a bit of research about anacron usage in Debian. I
downloaded and unpacked all packages that depend/recommend/suggest
anacron, and have looked at what kind of use they make of anacron.

The result is that there are _no_ packages that actually make use of
anacron's special features. The only thing that Debian actually
automatically does with anacron is execution of
cron.daily/weekly/monthly. All other usage of anacron is manual
intervention of the local admin anyway.

Considering that most advanced time controlled processes in Debian in
the future are likely to be implemented as systemd timer units, I think
that we're pretty safe her in assuming that the vast majority of anacron
installations will only invoke cron.daily/weekly/monthly. This also
means that if a local admin wants to have things differently, she is
pretty free to change the configuration without effect on other things
than cron.daily/weekly/monthly.

Greetings
Marc


-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header
Leimen, Germany    |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421

Message #35 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

To: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

Cc: 866041@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2017 11:37:45 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Fri, 30 Jun 2017 19:52:10 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:

> On Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:16:52 +0200 Michael Biebl wrote:
[...]
> > Afaics, this would basically reopen #744753.
> > Take a laptop for example, which is charged over night and then booted
> > in the morning while unplugged. We'd never trigger anacron because of
> > ConditionACPower=true in anacron.service
> > By triggering anacron.service hourly it's much more likely we hit a time
> > window where the system is plugged in.
> 
> Fair enough.
> 
> What about the attached patch?
> 
> It would at least exclude the time interval between midnight and early
> morning, while retaining the hourly-repeated-attempts behavior from
> 07:30 to 23:30.

Hello again,
have you had time to think about my second patch?
Do you consider it acceptable?

I hope you may incorporate it soon.
Thanks for your time!

Bye.

-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/
 There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #40 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

To: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

Cc: 866041@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2017 11:59:50 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Sun, 27 Aug 2017 11:37:45 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:

> On Fri, 30 Jun 2017 19:52:10 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:16:52 +0200 Michael Biebl wrote:
> [...]
> > > Afaics, this would basically reopen #744753.
> > > Take a laptop for example, which is charged over night and then booted
> > > in the morning while unplugged. We'd never trigger anacron because of
> > > ConditionACPower=true in anacron.service
> > > By triggering anacron.service hourly it's much more likely we hit a time
> > > window where the system is plugged in.
> > 
> > Fair enough.
> > 
> > What about the attached patch?
> > 
> > It would at least exclude the time interval between midnight and early
> > morning, while retaining the hourly-repeated-attempts behavior from
> > 07:30 to 23:30.
> 
> Hello again,
> have you had time to think about my second patch?
> Do you consider it acceptable?
> 
> I hope you may incorporate it soon.
> Thanks for your time!
> 
> Bye.

Ping?


-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/
 There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #45 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

To: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

Cc: 866041@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2017 00:33:37 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Sun, 1 Oct 2017 11:59:50 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:

> On Sun, 27 Aug 2017 11:37:45 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 30 Jun 2017 19:52:10 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> > 
> > > On Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:16:52 +0200 Michael Biebl wrote:
> > [...]
> > > > Afaics, this would basically reopen #744753.
> > > > Take a laptop for example, which is charged over night and then booted
> > > > in the morning while unplugged. We'd never trigger anacron because of
> > > > ConditionACPower=true in anacron.service
> > > > By triggering anacron.service hourly it's much more likely we hit a time
> > > > window where the system is plugged in.
> > > 
> > > Fair enough.
> > > 
> > > What about the attached patch?
> > > 
> > > It would at least exclude the time interval between midnight and early
> > > morning, while retaining the hourly-repeated-attempts behavior from
> > > 07:30 to 23:30.
> > 
> > Hello again,
> > have you had time to think about my second patch?
> > Do you consider it acceptable?
> > 
> > I hope you may incorporate it soon.
> > Thanks for your time!
> > 
> > Bye.
> 
> Ping?

Second ping?


-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/
 There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #50 received at 866041@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Francesco Poli <invernomuto@paranoici.org>

To: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

Cc: 866041@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: anacron: may execute daily/weekly/monthly jobs shortly after midnight

Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2017 12:27:07 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 00:33:37 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:

> On Sun, 1 Oct 2017 11:59:50 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 27 Aug 2017 11:37:45 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, 30 Jun 2017 19:52:10 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
> > > 
> > > > On Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:16:52 +0200 Michael Biebl wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > > > Afaics, this would basically reopen #744753.
> > > > > Take a laptop for example, which is charged over night and then booted
> > > > > in the morning while unplugged. We'd never trigger anacron because of
> > > > > ConditionACPower=true in anacron.service
> > > > > By triggering anacron.service hourly it's much more likely we hit a time
> > > > > window where the system is plugged in.
> > > > 
> > > > Fair enough.
> > > > 
> > > > What about the attached patch?
> > > > 
> > > > It would at least exclude the time interval between midnight and early
> > > > morning, while retaining the hourly-repeated-attempts behavior from
> > > > 07:30 to 23:30.
> > > 
> > > Hello again,
> > > have you had time to think about my second patch?
> > > Do you consider it acceptable?
> > > 
> > > I hope you may incorporate it soon.
> > > Thanks for your time!
> > > 
> > > Bye.
> > 
> > Ping?
> 
> Second ping?

Third ping?


-- 
 http://www.inventati.org/frx/
 There's not a second to spare! To the laboratory!
..................................................... Francesco Poli .
 GnuPG key fpr == CA01 1147 9CD2 EFDF FB82  3925 3E1C 27E1 1F69 BFFE

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #55 received at 866041-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Boyuan Yang <byang@debian.org>

To: 866041-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#866041: fixed in anacron 2.3-27~exp1

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2018 19:49:00 +0000

Source: anacron
Source-Version: 2.3-27~exp1

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
anacron, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 866041@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Boyuan Yang <byang@debian.org> (supplier of updated anacron package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2018 14:09:50 -0500
Source: anacron
Binary: anacron
Architecture: source
Version: 2.3-27~exp1
Distribution: experimental
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian QA Group <packages@qa.debian.org>
Changed-By: Boyuan Yang <byang@debian.org>
Description:
 anacron    - cron-like program that doesn't go by time
Closes: 565480 851633 866041 913584 914795
Changes:
 anacron (2.3-27~exp1) experimental; urgency=medium
 .
   * QA upload.
   * debian/apm.d,pm-utils*:
     Remove trigger of apmd and pm-tuils since those tools are both
     obsoleted. (Closes: #565480)
   * debian/anacron.udev:
     Also drop udev rules to trigger service on power online; this
     already raised some regressions that battery-powered mouses and
     keyboards' action can also trigger event as well, which made
     anacron run too frequently. (Closes: #914795)
   * debian/anacron.service: Add [Install] section back since enabling
     this service is harmless and removing it would left broken symlink
     in the system. (Closes: #913584)
   * debian/anacron.maintscript: Use .maintscript file to store
     instructions of dpkg-maintscript-helper. Thanks to Michael Biebl
     for the suggestion.
   * debian/anacron.timer: Do not trigger hourly timer between 23:30
     and 07:30 for systemd-enabled systems. This prevents daily /
     monthly jobs from executing shortly after midnight.
     (Closes: #866041)
   * debian/cron.d: Switch from trigger daily to only trigger anacron
     hourly between 07:30 to 23:30. The cron trigger will only work
     when systemd is not enabled. (Closes: #851633)
   * anacron.8: Further document Debian-specific modifications and
     the way anacron is triggered on the system.
Checksums-Sha1:
 057fe811220862dde394ccde02b0b951b853f701 1828 anacron_2.3-27~exp1.dsc
 1bdb392d079cce24f81948677aa07187cfff3028 20236 anacron_2.3-27~exp1.debian.tar.xz
 41e2487ab3c02d3808c4c4640f0b55d704eae1b5 5546 anacron_2.3-27~exp1_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
 4342c3189857b1496ed69fd428d36e86c839960506e5420bd5da9f84491bec97 1828 anacron_2.3-27~exp1.dsc
 9fde70a3cd423e2e7aa4fb5a4e2642f7c611d5b195af0cc5d876d50332c8e959 20236 anacron_2.3-27~exp1.debian.tar.xz
 7e28b45bca569844f24291ca5db18cae4a7396854c825e196b58ccb001c67865 5546 anacron_2.3-27~exp1_amd64.buildinfo
Files:
 6ef3c8643adaf385856b3c810cfb3e3e 1828 admin optional anacron_2.3-27~exp1.dsc
 9bd8e16e432c72da84a3d2550ae363b9 20236 admin optional anacron_2.3-27~exp1.debian.tar.xz
 7ba2abadcba75fefc356539d2193f477 5546 admin optional anacron_2.3-27~exp1_amd64.buildinfo

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