From 03a57e43f67221e5233fd585628b076d181a04f6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Malin Freeborn <malinfreeborn@posteo.net>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2023 06:06:54 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] embiggen time tools

---
 basics/at.md   | 12 ++++++++++++
 basics/cron.md | 10 ++++++++--
 2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/basics/at.md b/basics/at.md
index 901d3dc..5738744 100644
--- a/basics/at.md
+++ b/basics/at.md
@@ -43,3 +43,15 @@ This will print all pending IDs.  Remove a job by the ID with:
 > atrm 2
 
 Check /var/spool/atd/
+
+## Automation
+
+Automatically add a job for later, by setting the date, then using echo for the command.
+
+> t="$(date -d "2 minutes" +%R)"
+
+> echo "fortune > ~/file" | at "$t"
+
+> watch cat file
+
+The `$t` here outputs the day in minutes, but you could also do `t="$(date -d "2 days" +%m/%d/%Y)"`.
diff --git a/basics/cron.md b/basics/cron.md
index 34452b3..7f3bbc5 100644
--- a/basics/cron.md
+++ b/basics/cron.md
@@ -91,7 +91,11 @@ If you're using vim as the editor, just run this at the top of your crontab:
 
 > :r!echo PATH=$PATH
 
-### Location
+### `date` Commands
+
+Cron doesn't understand the `%` sign, so if you want to use `date +%R`, then it should be escaped with a backslash: `date +\%R`.
+
+### File Location
 
 The crontab files are in `/var/spool/cron/`, so you can backup or restore them.
 
@@ -101,7 +105,7 @@ The crontab files are in `/var/spool/cron/`, so you can backup or restore them.
 HOME=/home/user
 PATH=/usr/condabin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/home/user/.local/bin:/home/user/.scripts/:/home/user/.local/bin:/home/user/.scripts/
 
-1 0 1 * *    /usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/arc/$(date +%Y/%m)
+1 0 1 * *    /usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/arc/$(date +\%Y/\%m)
 
 18 0 1 */3 * $HOME/.scripts/mail-clean.sh
 
@@ -110,3 +114,5 @@ PATH=/usr/condabin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/u
 50 18 * * * /usr/bin/timeout 30m /usr/bin/syncthing
 
 ```
+
+