sleep and clean up.......

[pyrogen]

Hello everyone,
I have a qeustion that may seem pretty base, but here goes....
does unix (OSX) have "clean-up" scripts that run at night that optimize the operating systems performance? If so, does the "clean-up" scripts run while the machine is asleep? If the "clean-up" does not run while the machine is asleep, is there a way I can set my computer to awake at the appropriate time?

Also, is this a built in function of OSX, or do I need a utility?

I'm hoping to take a unix class at my university (trying desperatley to convince the powers to be to allow me to interchange a sequence in UNIX for the logic/mathematics requirement for my BFA) so I can become more adept and adroit in UNIX/OSX.

Thanks,
Destin

[robh]

Q. does unix (OSX) have "clean-up" scripts that run at night that optimize the operating systems performance?

A. No. there are scripts that run nightly/weekly/monthly but they do NOT optimize anything. They are housekeeping tools to clean out logfiles etc.

Q. If so, does the "clean-up" scripts run while the machine is asleep?

A. No.

Q. If the "clean-up" does not run while the machine is asleep, is there a way I can set my computer to awake at the appropriate time?

A. Not from OSX yet. I'm sure Apple will deal with this at a later date. There are alterantives though. Look for MacJanitor or anacron on the versiontracker site. The former is the easiest to setup.

[pyrogen]

Thanks for the clear answer, many people I have spoken to in the past would not answer this question out-right.
Once agian thanks,
Destin

[jmb]

I second the motion on MacJanitor. It's very easy to use, and seems to work well. The cleanup scripts that OS X runs are set to go off very early in the morning (4-5ish?), but I've read (somewhere; sorry, I can't recall where) that you can modify the execution time in your crontab (or something like that, I really not all that fluent in Unix). Essentially, you can set it up to run at, say, 12:15 PM while your computer is awake, but you are at lunch. I doubt that these scripts are all that demanding, so you could probably even have them run when you are working on your computer and you wouldn't notice, but I'm not sure on that.

[vDog]

Or edit the crontab file. Tutorial at the link below...vDog

http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a//mac/2001/12/14/terminal_one.html

[pyrogen]

That tutorial is sexy.