3 ms·

While being overly pedantic (because "not true" random is a spectrum), it is good practice to use random numbers to ensure that a recurring cron job does not ru

While being overly pedantic (because "not true" random is a spectrum), it is good practice to use random numbers to ensure that a recurring cron job does not run at the same time on all machines. This goes from good practice to necessary as a cron job uses increasing resources or talks to a centralized service. Puppet implements this as splay: https://www.puppet.com/docs/puppet/7/configuration.html#splay https://www.puppet.com/docs/puppet/7/configuration.html#spla...

PointyFluff 4y ago
[dead]
dharmab 4y ago
Systemd offers multiple options for randomized delays for timers, documented at: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.timer.html https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.tim...
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
You don't need the shell for that. Every modern cron supports randomization internally.