.TH bcron-update 8
.SH NAME
bcron-update \- Update system crontabs.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B bcron-update
.I path
[
.I path ...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B bcron-update
polls the named files or directories periodically to see if there are
any new, changed, or removed files.  When it detects changes, it mirrors
those changes into the crontab spool directory.
.B bcron-update
runs as root in order to be able to read system files that would
potentially be unreadable otherwise.
.P
On Debian, if
.I path
is a directory,
.B bcron-update
skips files in this directory with names that do not solely consist of
lower- and uppercase letters ('a'-'z', 'A'-'Z'), digits ('0'-'9'),
underscores ('_'), and hyphens ('-').
.SH EXAMPLES
To mirror modern vixie-cron's behavior, use:
.EX
bcron-update /etc/crontab /etc/cron.d
.EE
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP 5
.B BCRON_SPOOL
The spool directory for bcron.  Defaults to
.IR /var/spool/cron .
.TP 5
.B BCRON_USER
After writing files and before moving them into their final location,
.B bcron-update
changes the ownership of the file to this user so that
.B bcron-sched
can read them.
.SH SEE ALSO
bcron-sched(8)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.B bcron-update
outputs three different kinds of messages about actions it is taking.
.TP 5
.I Rescanning /etc/cron.d
The named directory has been modified, and will be scanned to determine
what files have been added or deleted.
.TP 5
.I -/etc/cron.d/oldfile
The named file no longer exists and will be removed from the spool.
.TP 5
.I +/etc/cron.d/newfile
The named file was either created or modified since the last scan, and
will be copied into the spool.
.SH AUTHOR
Bruce Guenter <bruce@untroubled.org>