rat¶ ↑

Ruby interface to Unix “at” command.

$ gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org
$ sudo gem install rat

$ require 'rat'
$ job = Rat.add('touch at-at', Time.now + 30)
$ # => <integer id>
$ # Thirty seconds later, the touch command runs.
$ Rat.list
$ # => [{:job => <integer id>, :time => Thu Oct 08 09:08:51 -0700 2009}, ...]
$ Rat.delete(job) # if you change your mind about running the command.

“At” stores your environment, including your working directory, so you don’t need full pathnames to executables, etc. like you do in cron (though it doesn’t hurt).

Note that, by default, “at” is disabled on MacOS X. See “man atrun” for the command to enable it.

Copyright © 2009 Ryan Koopmans. See LICENSE for details.