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Installing Kronos

In what is becoming an increasingly complex setup on my AlphaServer, I was looking for a freeware scheduler that would be better than maintaining a DAILY.COM script to manage my repetitive jobs.

Way back on the OpenVMS Freeware 4.0 CD, I came across Kronos by Art Ragosta. I don't know why I've never noticed this piece of code before. Perhaps it's because I have always used commercial products at the workplace.

Unfortunately, the code is not in a zip file, so you must be careful downloading it to not corrupt the binaries. I used cURL (thanks, Marty!)

While the setup for Kronos is a little laborious (as you have to hand edit a bunch of DCL files, and it helps to know how to write Fortran), the end result is well worth it. I now have more than 40 regularly scheduled jobs running, with full error handling and reporting.