Symantec.com
Partners
About Symantec
cartShopping
WelcomeProductsViruses & RisksSupportDownloadsStore
Home & Home Office
Symantec.com > Home & Home Office > Support > Knowledge Base


PRINT THIS SOLUTION PRINT THIS SOLUTION

RATE THIS SOLUTION RATE THIS SOLUTION

Scheduling LiveUpdate for all users using UNIX commands

Situation:
This document describes how to schedule LiveUpdate for all users, using UNIX commands.

Solution:
In Mac OS X you can have multiple users set up to use one computer. When you schedule LiveUpdate to run, you are scheduling it only for the user currently logged in. Scheduled events only run when the user who scheduled the event is logged in. If another user is logged in at the time an event is scheduled to occur, the event will not run.

This document provides a few commands that you can use to schedule LiveUpdate to run for all users from the command line in Terminal. When you schedule LiveUpdate for all users, an event will run no matter what user is logged in.

To open Terminal

  1. On the Go menu, click Applications.
  2. In the Applications folder, open Utilities.
  3. Open Terminal.

At the prompt in Terminal, type or copy and paste a command, and then press return to run the command. After the command finishes, the command prompt appears again.

To have LiveUpdate run at a scheduled time for all users, you must create a crontab entry for root.

To create a crontab entry for root
  1. On the Go menu, click Applications.
  2. In the Applications window, open Utilities.
  3. Open Terminal.
  4. Type the following:

    sudo crontab -u root -e

    A temporary copy of the crontab file will be opened by the default text editor within the Terminal. Generally, this is vi, however, this can also be set to Pico. Unless you have explicitly changed your editor to Pico, assume you are using vi.
  5. Enter your administrator password, and then press return.
  6. Type a crontab entry. Use one of the examples in the Crontab entry examples section, or create your own from the information given in the Crontab entry information section below.
    • In vi, use the arrow keys to move the cursor to where you want to add the entry within the file.
    • Type i to insert text and then type in the command using either one of the examples below or from information in the Crontab entry section.
    • After entering the line for the Crontab, press the Escape key, then press ZZ to save the file and then quit. Go to step 7.
    • In Pico, move the cursor with the arrow keys to where you want to to enter text and then type in your command using the examples or from the information given in the Crontab entry information section below.
    • When you have entered in the information, press Control-X to quit Pico. When promted to save the file, press y.
  7. You can review the updated crontab by typing the following:

    sudo crontab -u root -l


Crontab entry information
A crontab entry has the following 6 fields, entered all on one line:

minute hour day month weekday command

Field value ranges

LiveUpdate commands
On the Crontab entry, after you type the minute, hour, day, month, and weekday information, you must add a command to tell LiveUpdate what to do. First you must type the command to open LiveUpdate, then add a flag and parameter to tell LiveUpdate what to update. You may then add optional flags to tell LiveUpdate how to update. For example, you can add a flag to tell LiveUpdate not to show the progress window, or the summary window.

To open LiveUpdate (there is a space after the \ (backslash)):

/Applications/Norton\ Solutions/LiveUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/LiveUpdate

Add a flag and parameter
-update <product_code>
Add an optional flag and parameter

-liveupdateautoquit YES -liveupdatequiet YES
-liveupdateoninstall YES
Crontab entry examples
Type or copy and paste any of the following commands into the Terminal window, or adapt one of these with the information given in the section above to create your own entry.

Note: If you use Norton AntiVirus 10.x/Symantec AntiVirus 10.x or later, replace "Norton\ Solutions" with "Symantec\ Solutions". The backslash prevents the command line from stopping at the space.


To update all products, without the progress window or summary window at 1:33 pm on December 31 every year:
Type or copy and paste the following command into the Terminal and press return:

33 13 31 12 *  /Applications/Norton\ Solutions/LiveUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/LiveUpdate -update LUal -liveupdatequiet YES -liveupdateautoquit YES
To update the Norton AntiVirus virus definitions with the progress and summary windows every Tuesday at midnight:
Type or copy and paste the following command into the Terminal and press return:

0 0 * * 2  /Applications/Norton\ Solutions/LiveUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/LiveUpdate -update LUdf

To update the Norton AntiVirus program and virus definitions without the progress window and with the summary window at the end of the update every Sunday at 8 am:
Type or copy and paste the following command into the Terminal and press return:

0 8 * * 0 /Applications/Norton\ Solutions/LiveUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/LiveUpdate -update LUna -update LUdf -liveupdatequiet YES

 

Available Translations:


RATE THIS SOLUTION
Was this solution helpful to you?
Yes
No
If any information was unclear, or the information you were seeking was not provided, please let us know. Your feedback will help us improve this service.

NOTE: Comments entered here will NOT recieve a personal email response.


Document ID: 2004052015282311
Last Modified: 03/20/2008
Date Created: 05/20/2004
Operating System(s): Mac OS X 10.2.x, Mac OS X 10.3.x, Mac OS X 10.1.5
Product(s): Norton AntiVirus 10.0 - Mac, Norton AntiVirus 10.0 Mac - Enterprise, Norton AntiVirus 9.0 Mac - Enterprise, Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh - 10.0


Site Index · Legal Notices · Privacy Policy · · Contact Us · Global Sites · License Agreements
©1995 - 2008 Symantec Corporation