at is the user version of "cron": a Unix utility that helps you schedule tasks to be carried out automatically by the system in your stead sometime in the future. Cron needs special privileges to run and you have to modify the crontab file to set things up, whereas "at" is configured with the command-line.
Regarding the change of the /private/var/at/jobs/ directory ownership, what Apple apparently did is make it belong to the "daemon" service account, instead of root (the privileged superuser account). This is clearly a security issue so a sneaky regular user cannot use the "at" command to gain superuser privileges. Not a big deal if you're the only person to use your portable, but an issue on public or multiuser machines.
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so far, so good! - MacJuanC
at is the user version of "cron": a Unix utility that helps you schedule tasks to be carried out automatically by the system in your stead sometime in the future. Cron needs special privileges to run and you have to modify the crontab file to set things up, whereas "at" is configured with the command-line.Regarding the change of the /private/var/at/jobs/ directory ownership, what Apple apparently did is make it belong to the "daemon" service account, instead of root (the privileged superuser account). This is clearly a security issue so a sneaky regular user cannot use the "at" command to gain superuser privileges. Not a big deal if you're the only person to use your portable, but an issue on public or multiuser machines.
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Wednesday, January 26 2005 @ 12:12 AM PST