cron on vacation

[Ted H. Emigh]

We have a 3B2/400 with version 3 of Unix.  Several times in the last
month, we have had cron take a vacation.  It will stop running for
several hours, then start again for no apparent reason.  The last time
this happened, cron stopped working at the time that it started a uucp
for our news feed (once a day over a 1200 baud line, so it typically
takes 8 hours or so).  cron then went to sleep.  We didn't notice it
until uucp died due to line noise (we think).  It didn't restart.  After
several hours (and when we began to poke around), cron started again.
As far as we can tell, we did not do anything directly to start it.

Does anyone have any ideas?  Is there something we can do to prevent
this?

Thanks.

--Ted--


Appended are the cron/log and uucp/.Log at around the time this occurred.


cron Log:
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-3:52:30,12060,39) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxX0vBy --> ncsugn!X.ncsuvxX0vBy (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-3:52:34,12060,40) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxb0vCA --> ncsugn!D.ncsuvxb0vCA (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-3:59:18,12060,41) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxX0vC8 --> ncsugn!X.ncsuvxX0vC8 (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-3:59:22,12060,42) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxb0vCK --> ncsugn!D.ncsuvxb0vCK (news))
news ncsuvx  (5/1-4:10:17,12060,43) IN SEND/SLAVE MODE (INPUT FAILURE)
news ncsuvx  (5/1-4:10:17,12060,43) FAILED (conversation complete)
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:31:47,12832,0) SUCCEEDED (call to ncsuvx )
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:31:51,12832,0) OK (startup)
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:31:53,12832,0) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxb0vCK --> ncsugn!D.ncsuvxb0vCK (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:37:53,12832,1) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxX0vCI --> ncsugn!X.ncsuvxX0vCI (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:37:59,12832,2) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxb0vCU --> ncsugn!D.ncsuvxb0vCU (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:45:59,12832,3) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxX0vCS --> ncsugn!X.ncsuvxX0vCS (news))
uucp ncsuvx  (5/1-13:46:05,12832,4) REMOTE REQUESTED (ncsuvx!D.ncsuvxb0vCe --> ncsugn!D.ncsuvxb0vCe (news))



uucp Log:
>  CMD: sendbatch -c ngn
>  news 12362 c Tue May  1 02:45:00 1990
<  news 12362 c Tue May  1 02:45:10 1990
>  CMD: sendbatch -c ncsuvx
>  news 12444 c Tue May  1 02:50:00 1990
<  news 12444 c Tue May  1 02:50:04 1990
>  CMD: misc/del.junk >/dev/null
>  news 12530 c Tue May  1 03:00:00 1990
>  CMD: /usr/lib/sa/sa1
>  sys 12532 c Tue May  1 03:00:00 1990
<  sys 12532 c Tue May  1 03:00:03 1990
>  CMD: /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.poll > /dev/null
>  root 12649 c Tue May  1 03:01:00 1990
<  root 12649 c Tue May  1 03:01:06 1990
<  news 12530 c Tue May  1 03:01:59 1990
>  CMD: $HOME/bin/hourly
>  emigh 12912 c Tue May  1 13:58:51 1990
>  CMD: 641581129.b
>  news 12914 b Tue May  1 13:58:53 1990
<  emigh 12912 c Tue May  1 13:58:53 1990
<  news 12914 b Tue May  1 13:58:56 1990 rc=1
>  CMD: /usr/lib/sa/sa1
>  sys 12970 c Tue May  1 14:00:00 1990
<  sys 12970 c Tue May  1 14:00:01 1990
>  CMD: 641581234.b
>  news 12980 b Tue May  1 14:00:35 1990
<  news 12980 b Tue May  1 14:00:38 1990 rc=1
>  CMD: /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.poll > /dev/null
>  root 13009 c Tue May  1 14:01:00 1990
<  root 13009 c Tue May  1 14:01:04 1990
>  CMD: $HOME/bin/hourly
>  emigh 13053 c Tue May  1 14:02:00 1990
<  emigh 13053 c Tue May  1 14:02:00 1990
>  CMD: /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.hour > /dev/null
>  root 13188 c Tue May  1 14:11:00 1990
<  root 13188 c Tue May  1 14:11:01 1990
>  CMD: sendbatch -c ngn
>  news 13260 c Tue May  1 14:15:00 1990
<  news 13260 c Tue May  1 14:15:06 1990
>  CMD: /usr/lib/sa/sa1
>  sys 13359 c Tue May  1 14:20:00 1990
<  sys 13359 c Tue May  1 14:20:02 1990
>  CMD: /usr/lib/uucp/uudemon.poll > /dev/null
>  root 13541 c Tue May  1 14:31:00 1990
<  root 13541 c Tue May  1 14:31:08 1990

-------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Ted H. Emigh, Dept. Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC
uucp:	mcnc!ncsuvx!ncsugn!emigh	internet:  emigh at ncsugn.ncsu.edu
BITNET: emigh%ncsugn at MCNC.UUCP  or  emigh%ncsugn at ncsuvx.ncsu.edu