This page attempts to explain how to install and configure Cron on your Tivo

Getting it installed

The setup for this is simple yet complex. Simple, because it is possible to get going quite easily, but complex because the documentation provided, like all thing Linix is appauling!

Firstly, download cron-3.0pl1_tivo-1.zip, unzip (easiest to do this on your PC using WinZip) and FTP to your Tivo's /var/hack directory.

You will find the following files inside the zip

• Readme
• crontab
• cron-setup-tivo.sh
• README.cron
• cron

The cron-setup-tivo.sh contains the following -
#!/bin/sh
mkdir /var/hack/cron
mkdir /var/hack/etc
mkdir /var/hack/etc/cron.d

The first problem you will find is that you have a cron command and a cron directory!

To get around this, manually move the cron command to the /var/hack/bin directory. If this directory doesn't exist create it with command mkdir /var/hack/bin

Next, move the cron command... mv cron /var/hack/bin
Change to the directory... cd /var/hack/bin
and set the command's permissions... chmod 755 cron

Next, run the setup script...
cd /var/hack
chmod 755 cron-setup-tivo.sh
./cron-setup-tivo.sh

You will now need to move the crontab file to the correct directory - /var/hack/etc.
mv crontab /var/hack/etc

Starting cron up

You will need to edit our rc.sysinit file and add the line
/var/hack/bin/cron
See TivoHowToEditStartupScript

Understanding the crontab file

A crontab file consists of lines of six fields each. The fields are separated by spaces or tabs. The first five are integer patterns that specify the following:

minute (0-59),
hour (0-23),
day of the month (1-31),
month of the year (1-12),
day of the week (0-6 with 0=Sunday).

Each of these patterns may be either an asterisk (meaning all legal values) or a list of elements separated by commas. An element is either a number or two numbers separated by a minus sign (meaning an inclusive range). Note that the specification of days may be made by two fields (day of the month and day of the week). Both are adhered to if specified as a list of elements.

The sixth field of a line in a crontab file is a string that is executed by the shell at the specified times. A percent character in this field (unless escaped by \) is translated to a NEWLINE character.

Only the first line (up to a `%' or end of line) of the command field is executed by the shell. Other lines are made available to the command as standard input. Any line beginning with a `#' is a comment and will be ignored. The file should not contain blank lines.

-- AdamWhite - 26 Nov 2003