bug#40499: mcron missing initial directories?

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hello,

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
> Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> skribis:
>
>> On Wed, Apr 08, 2020 at 11:55:05AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>>> Hi Danny,
>>> 
>>> Danny Milosavljevic <dannym@scratchpost.org> skribis:
>>> 
>>> > $ crontab -e
>>> >
>>> > In unknown file:
>>> >            0 (copy-file "/tmp/crontab.10313" "/var/cron/tabs/dannym")
>>> >
>>> > ERROR: In procedure copy-file:
>>> > In procedure copy-file: No such file or directory
>>> >
>>> > /var/cron doesn't exit either.  Maybe we should automatically create 
>>> > /var/cron ?
>>> 
>>> Yes, this should be done in an activation snippet.
>>> 
>>
>> Should this be part of a crontab service
>
> That’s what I had in mind.
>
>> or does the mere existence of the files allow cron tasks to start
>> working?
>
> Good question.  Actually I think the crontab compatibility bit is rather
> separate in mcron: AIUI, you have to run ‘crond’, not ‘mcron’, if you
> want that to get that functionality (info "(mcron) Invoking cron or
> crond").
>
> So perhaps all this is moot unless/until we have an mcron-crond service.

I think so.  And since Dale Mellor, the original author of GNU Mcron
advises to keep the crond service per-user rather than for the system
[0], if we want a crond service it seems we should turn ourselves to
Guix Home.

Closing.

[0]  https://issues.guix.gnu.org/40950#5