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               Time spans, Time frames, and Scheduled times

Majordomo supports three different time formats.

The first format is used to indicate a time span, such as 5 hours.  
This format is used in the following contexts:
  delays                        (see "help delay")
  the archive command           (see "help archive")
  the report command            (see "help report")
  the nomail personal setting   (see "help set")
  the access_rules setting      (see "help configset_access_rules")
  the digests setting           (see "help configset_digests")
  the post_limits setting       (see "help configset_post_limits")

The second format is used to indicate a particular date or time frame, 
such as the second week of June, 2000, or the 5th day of May, 1996.
This format is used in the following contexts:
  the archive command           (see "help archive")
  the report command            (see "help report")

The third format is used to indicate a scheduled time, such as 8 PM
every Friday.  This format is used in the following contexts:
  the access_rules setting      (see "help configset_access_rules")
  the digests setting           (see "help configset_digests")
  the triggers setting          (see "help configset_triggers")
  
The rest of this document describes how to write each format.


Time spans
----------

A period of time can be specified in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, 
months, or years.  For example, use:

  30s for 30 seconds
 12mi for 12 minutes
   3h for 3 hours
   7d for 7 days
   2w for 2 weeks
   6m for 6 months
   2y for 2 years
  4cd for 4 calendar days
  7cw for 7 calendar weeks
  8cm for 8 calendar months
  2cy for 2 calendar years
  5am for the next or previous time the clock time is 5 AM.
  8pm for the next or previous time the clock time is 8 PM.

If you need more flexibility in specifying time spans, you can combine 
time periods, as in 2w3d for two weeks and three days.

The short abbreviations s/mi/h/d/w/m/y can be expanded into full words.
If you are using full words, do not use a space: "2weeks" is correct, but 
"2 weeks" is incorrect.  For example, "4w3d" can be written as "4weeks3days".

The "calendar" time spans end on the boundaries between days, weeks,
months, or years, but the other time spans are exact.  For example, "1
calendar day" would be the time between now and midnight, but "1 day" is
a time span of exactly 24 hours.

The "am" and "pm" time spans depend upon the current time and whether or
not the requested time is in the future or past.  For example, if the
current time is 8 AM, the future time span "11am" would refer to 11 AM
today; if the current time is 3 PM, the future time span "11am" would
refer to 11 AM tomorrow.


Dates and time frames
---------------------

Numbers can be used to indicate a particular month or quarter of a year,
or a particular week or day of a month.  The basic formats are:

  yyyy
  yyyyq
  yyyymm
  yyyymmdd
  yyyymmw

NOTE: There is a subtle difference between day and week time stamps:
days are always two digits, and weeks are always one digit!  Be careful
to remember the leading zero if the day of the month is less than 10.
Similarly, months are always two digits, while quarter-years are one
digit.

To include an entire year, use a four-digit number.  For example:
   1999 for the entire year of 1999

To include only one month of a specific year, use a four-digit year
plus a two-digit month (with a leading '0' if needed):
   200007 for the month of July, 2000

To include a specific week use a four-digit year, plus a two-digit
month (with a leading '0' if needed), plus a one-digit week:
   2000011 for the first week of January, 2000

To include a specific day use a four-digit year, a two-digit month,
and a two-digit day (with a leading '0' on day and month if needed):
   20000802 for the second day of August, 2000


Scheduled times
---------------

For list configurations that need a time specification, you can use any
of the following forms. Note that ranges are ONLY allowed for hours,
don't use dashes with day or month specifications. If the syntax you
want to use isn't specifically mentioned here, it won't work. Don't
try to extend the patterns (like tacking an hour on a day-of-year spec).

1a. HOUR: an integer from 0 to 23
   - the action will be taken only during this hour of each day
      (at whatever minute is convenient for the software)
   - minutes can NOT be specified
   - can use "always", "anytime", or "hourly" to run once per hour
   - HOURs less than 0 or greater than 23 will be IGNORED
   - EXAMPLE: "0" is midnight, "12" is noon
   - EXAMPLE: "23" is late evening, the last hour of the day

1b. HOUR RANGE: two HOURs separated by a dash
   - the action will be taken each hour between these two hours each day
   - EXAMPLE: "12-13" is around noon, action taken at 12noon and 1pm
   - EXAMPLE: "8-17" is the work day, once per hour from 8am to 5pm

1c. HOUR LIST: two or more HOURs and/or HOUR RANGEs separated by commas
   - the action will be taken during each of these hours each day, as needed
   - EXAMPLE: "6,18" would act every day at 6am and 6pm
   - EXAMPLE: "6,12-14,18" would act every day at 6am, noon, 1pm, 2pm, and 6pm

2a. WEEK DAY: the name or number representing a day of the week
   - the action will be taken sometime during that day
      (early in the day unless an HOUR OF DAY spec is used)
   - can use standard English day names
      (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
   - can use unique portion of standard day names
      (su, m, tu, w, th, f, sa) or preferably (sun, mon, tue, wed, thur, fri, sat)
   - can use a number from 1 through 7 followed by 'w'
      (1w for sun, 2w for mon, 3w for tue, 4w for wed, 5w for thur, 6w for fri, 7w for sat)
   - WEEK DAYs beyond the last actual day of a week (like 8w) will be IGNORED
   - can use "daily":  the same as a WEEK DAY LIST containing all days (see below)
   - can use "weekly": the same as "sun" (see below)

2b. WEEK DAY LIST: two or more WEEK DAYs separated by commas (not dashes)
   - the action will be taken during each of these days each week, as needed
      (early in the day unless an HOUR OF DAY spec is also used)
   - EXAMPLE: "sat,sun" would act on weekends
   - EXAMPLE: "m,tu,w,th,f" would act on all weekdays (mon-fri IS NOT ALLOWED)

3a. MONTH DAY: the name or number representing a day of each month
   - the action will be taken sometime during that day of each month
      (early in the day unless an HOUR OF DAY spec is also used)
   - do not confuse this once-per-month spec with the once-per-year spec below!
   - MONTH DAYs beyond the last actual day of a month (like Feb 30th) will be IGNORED
   - can use standard English ordinals: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th ... 30th, 31st
   - can use a number followed by 'm': 1m for 1st, 2m for 2nd, 3m for 3rd, etc.
   - can use "monthly": the same as "1st" (see below)

3b. MONTH DAY LIST: two or more MONTH DAYs separated by commas (not dashes)
   - the action will be taken during each of these days each month, as needed
      (early in the day unless an HOUR OF DAY spec is also used)
   - EXAMPLE: "1st,15th" would act semimonthly (about every two weeks)
   - EXAMPLE: "1m,2m,3m" for first 3 days of each month (1m-3m or 1-3m NOT ALLOWED)

4a. HOUR OF DAY: combines day and hour specs (separately described above)
   - WEEK DAY or MONTH DAY is followed by HOUR or HOUR RANGE or HOUR LIST in parentheses
   - action is taken at the specified hour (or hours) on the specified day
   - a spec like fri(6) or 6w(6) limits the action to a specific hour of a specific day
   - a spec like fri(6,18) limits the action to several specific hours of a specific day
   - a spec like 22nd(12-18) limits the action to a range of hours on a specific day

4b. HOUR OF DAY LIST: two or more HOUR OF DAYs separated by commas (not dashes)
   - action is taken at the each of the specified hours on the specified days
   - EXAMPLE: "sat,sun(10,14)" is just once early saturday, plus 10am and 2pm sunday
   - EXAMPLE: "sat(22-23),sun(0-2)" acts on 5 consecutive hours (10pm sat until 2am sun)

5. YEAR DAY: one or two numbers representing a day of the year (no commas or dashes)
   - can use a number 1-365 followed by 'y'
   - can use a number 1-12 followed by 'm' and ANOTHER number 1-31 followed by 'd'
   - YEAR DAYs beyond the last actual day of a year (like 400y or 2m31d) will be IGNORED
   - do not confuse this once-per-year spec with the once-per-month spec above!
   - EXAMPLES: "91y"  is April Fool's day and "359y"   is Christmas in the year 2000
   - EXAMPLES: "4m1d" is April Fool's day and "12m25d" is Christmas in the year 2000

6. SPECIAL NAMES: these can be used as alternatives to the DAY specs above
   - always:    take the action whenever possible (cron usually runs triggers hourly)
   - anytime:   same as 'always'
   - hourly:    same as 'always'
   - never:     never take this action even if the opportunity arises
   - none:      same as 'never'
   - daily:     the action is taken every midnight
   - weekly:    the action is taken every Sunday at 1am
   - monthly:   the action is taken on the first day of every month at 3am
   - quarterly: the action is taken on the first day of each quarter at 4am
                     (the first of January, April, July, and October)
   - yearly:    the action is taken on every first of January at 5am


See Also:
   help access_variables
   help archive
   help configset_access_rules
   help configset_digests
   help configset_post_limits
   help configset_triggers
   help default
   help delay
   help report
   help set

This is the "times" help document for 
Majordomo 2, version 0.1200401130.

For a list of all help documents, send the following command:
   help topics
in the body of a message to mj2@smoe.org.

For assistance, please contact the smoe.org administrators.

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