To start using anacron: Create the file ${SYSCONFDIR}/anacrontab (see anacrontab(5) for information about its format). The following is a simple example which runs the standard OpenBSD daily, weekly, and monthly scripts: -----Cut # ${SYSCONFDIR}/anacrontab example SHELL=/bin/sh PATH=${PREFIX}/sbin:${PREFIX}/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin # format: period delay job-identifier command 1 5 cron.daily sh /etc/daily 2>&1 | tee /var/log/daily.out 7 10 cron.weekly sh /etc/weekly 2>&1 | tee /var/log/weekly.out 30 15 cron.monthly sh /etc/monthly 2>&1 | tee /var/log/monthly.out -----Cut Comment out the invocation of these jobs in root's crontab. Invoke anacron from /etc/rc.local like this: if [ X"${anacron}" == X"YES" -a -x ${PREFIX}/sbin/anacron ]; then echo -n ' anacron' ${PREFIX}/sbin/anacron -s fi (and add "anacron=YES" to /etc/rc.conf.local) If your machine is left running for more than 24h at a time, you might also want to invoke anacron from an early morning cron job.