From 98baabe7a0017f6893352b08de6953e51cf33e09 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joakim Persson Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 21:00:53 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] contrib: flag cron-not-installed as a common caveat Minimal Debian/Ubuntu hosts (and most base container images) don't ship cron by default. `crontab: command not found` is the first thing a user hits if they try the cron path without installing it. Previous caveats block covered semantics (no Persistent, mail-drop stderr) but silently assumed cron was present. Add an explicit "check command -v crontab, apt install cron, or pick systemd" preflight to the caveats so the error is surfaced before the user runs into it. Caught during 2026-04-30 Phase 4 runtime validation on a Debian trixie host: `crontab -T` lint failed because cron wasn't installed, even though the underlying docker-exec shell command (the actual workload) ran fine. --- contrib/README.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/contrib/README.md b/contrib/README.md index ab20f71..f8ca0b9 100644 --- a/contrib/README.md +++ b/contrib/README.md @@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/se.jordbo.mempalace-session.plist **Why:** simpler, ubiquitous, works on any UNIX. No `loginctl enable-linger` dance, no user-units awareness required. -**Caveats:** no "persistent" semantics (a missed run while the machine was off stays missed); default cron output goes to mail or is silently dropped if no MTA. +**Caveats:** no "persistent" semantics (a missed run while the machine was off stays missed); default cron output goes to mail or is silently dropped if no MTA. Also: **cron is not installed by default on minimal Debian/Ubuntu hosts** (nor on most container images). Check with `command -v crontab` — if absent, `sudo apt install cron` (or equivalent) first, or use the systemd timer instead. **Install:**