smgr keeps dying ???

[Jeff Trim]

In article <342 at albanycs.Albany.Edu> vijay at albanycs.Albany.Edu (Vijay Vaidyanathan) writes:

Because this may or may not be common knowledge: 'smgr' and 'cron' are
EQUIVILENTS - This is in reference to the 3B1 Unix Pc...
So you may freely substitute '/etc/cron' for '/etc/smgr' throughout
this posting.

>Every few days (sometimes more often, sometimes less!), the clock
>display on the top line of the UNIXPC screen vanishes. I have to
>su and then run /etc/smgr, and alls fine. Is this serious? Symptomatic
>of some strange terminal illness ? So, how long do I have ??

Ummm loosing your 'cron' can be hazerdous to your health - yes ;-)
cron does things like set the current time/date - schedules everything
on your system - you really shouldn't operate without it ..... 

One of the things I have noticed about the 3B1 is that it doesn't
like to let you start processes in background and then logoff ;-(
I think it doesn't dis-associate the PARENT process from the 
background process and basically it kills the background process
when you are no longer around (ala have logged out).  What is 
needed is a way to disassociate processes from your TTY - that way
it runs like a daemon ... the way 'smgr' is supposed to run...

If your 'cron' is dieing that is not very good ;-(  If you are having
troubles like that here's how I would go about searching for a 
remedy:

1) READ your 'cronlog' file ;-)  (hehe I guess I am guilty of not listening
   to my system as well ;-)  (/usr/adm/cronlog)
2) check your '/usr/lib/crontab' file for processes that might be doing
   nasty things to your system.  Basically you are looking for something
   that you run via crontab that *might* be crashing your 'smgr' (cron).

Another way to get around this and the (above) problem is to utilize
the '/etc/daemons' directory - this is checked at BOOT TIME for 
'user-written' processes that want to be STARTED without TTY 
association - in this way you will have a running background daemon
that you can safely logoff and leave running - it shouldn't die
unless it 'abends' or dumps core on you, system dies, etc..etc.
This will ONLY work if you are 'root' or your 3B1 - as it is found
in the /etc directory .. the superusers happy home ;)

One thing further - 'smgr' should startup at boot time and never die,
it's a pretty important process.  If it is dying then you may have
problems -- anyone out in net-land have any ideas about this??

Hope that was of some help -- if I am gravely mistaken someone will
censor me ;-)  (nothing like USENET ;-)

>Thanks.
>- Vijay
>-------
>vijay at cssun.albany.edu, vijay at albanycs.albany.edu
>-------

No prob,

	  - Jeff

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