AT.ALLOW(5)

💖 at.allow, at.deny — who gets to submit jobs via at or batch 💖

okay bestie, welcome to AT.ALLOW(5), straight out of the Linux Programmer's Manual 🎀 this is the whole vibe check on who's allowed to queue stuff up for later.

✨ NAME ✨

at.allow, at.deny — determine who can submit jobs via at or batch 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so the two files /etc/at.allow and /etc/at.deny are literally the bouncers at the club 🫶 they decide which user can submit commands for later execution via at(1) or batch(1). no cap.

the format of the files is a list of usernames, one on each line. that's it. that's the whole thing. and heads up: whitespace is not permitted 🚫 like do not put a lil space in there, it will not slay.

okay here's the decision tree, and it's giving very much if-else energy:

• if the file /etc/at.allow exists, only usernames mentioned in it are allowed to use at. allowlist supremacy 💅
• if /etc/at.allow does not exist, /etc/at.deny is checked, and every username not mentioned in it is then allowed to use at.
• an empty /etc/at.deny means that every user may use at 🌈 (yes, everybody. the whole group chat.)
• if neither exists, only the superuser is allowed to use at 😭 it's locked down, it's private, it's main character only.

fr fr, remember the order: at.allow gets checked first, and if it's there, at.deny doesn't even get a turn 💀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• at(1)
• cron(8)
• crontab(1)
• atd(8)

and that's the page, bestie, you ate it 💖 this was the at.allow / at.deny page from the Linux Programmer's Manual, dated Sep 1997 ✨ iconic vintage behavior, no notes 🎀👑