crontab entry environment variables [PSARC/2007/503 FastTrack timeo

[James Carlson]

John Plocher writes:
> If RedHat/Ubuntu does it in a particular way, we should
> consider doing it in exactly the same way.  Being different
> from Linux in these sorts of situations is a liability.

Indeed.  However, I think I can paraphrase Don's objections like this:

  Given that standards-conforming applications are permitted to (and
  thus must be able to) insert working entries into crontabs that may
  be shared with other applications or with users, we need to provide
  substantial guidance to users on the use of the new feature.

In particular, we need to tell users that if they place these sorts of
environment variables into their crontabs and if they're using
standards-conformant applications (XPG* stuff), then their variables
may change the way those applications run, and may even break them.
"Be careful."

As best I can tell, this doesn't mean adding knobs or bells or
whistles or in any way straying from what everyone else has done in
this area.  Instead, it means documenting it properly, so that users
who do care about standards conformance instead of Linux conformance
(however few they may be) can still achieve that without wandering
into open tar pits.

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
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