whenever 0.6.1 → 0.7.0

data/.gitignore

@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 pkg
 doc
 .*.sw[a-z]
+Gemfile.lock

data/.travis.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+rvm:
+  - 1.8.7
+  - 1.9.2
+  - ree
+  - jruby

data/{CHANGELOG.rdoc → CHANGELOG.md}

@@ -1,4 +1,62 @@
-== 0.6.1 / October 20th, 2010
+### 0.7.0 / September 2nd, 2011
+
+* Use mojombo's chronic, it's active again. [Javan Makhmali]
+
+* Capistrano task enhancements. [Chris Griego]
+
+* wheneverize command defaults to '.' directory. [Andrew Nesbitt]
+
+* rake job_type uses bundler if detected. [Michał Szajbe]
+
+* Indicate filename in exceptions stemming from schedule file. [Javan Makhmali]
+
+* Don't require rubygems, bundler where possible. [Oleg Pudeyev]
+
+* Documentation and code cleanup. [many nice people]
+
+
+### 0.6.8 / May 24th, 2011
+
+* Convert most shortcuts to seconds. every :day -> every 1.day. #129 [Javan Makhmali]
+
+* Allow commas in raw cron syntax. #130 [Marco Bergantin, Javan Makhmali]
+
+* Output no update message as comments. #135 [Javan Makhmali]
+
+* require 'thread' to support Rubygems >= 1.6.0. #132 [Javan Makhmali]
+
+
+### 0.6.7 / March 23rd, 2011
+
+* Fix issue with comment block being corrupted during subsequent insertion of duplicate entries to the crontab. #123 [Jeremy (@lingmann)]
+
+* Removed -i from default job template. #118 [Javan Makhmali]
+
+
+### 0.6.6 / March 8th, 2011
+
+* Fix unclosed identifier bug. #119 [Javan Makhmali]
+
+
+### 0.6.5 / March 8th, 2011
+
+* Preserve whitespace at the end of crontab file. #95 [Rich Meyers]
+
+* Setting nil or blank environment variables now properly formats output. [T.J. VanSlyke]
+
+* Allow raw cron sytax, added -i to bash job template, general cleanup. [Javan Makhmali]
+
+
+### 0.6.2 / October 26th, 2010
+
+* --clear-crontab option completely removes entries. #63 [Javan Makhmali]
+
+* Set default :environment and :path earlier in the new setup.rb (formerly job_types/default.rb). [Javan Makhmali]
+
+* Converted README and CHANGELOG to markdown. [Javan Makhmali]
+
+
+### 0.6.1 / October 20th, 2010
 
 * Detect script/rails file and change runner to Rails 3 style if found. [Javan Makhmali]
 
@@ -7,14 +65,14 @@
 * Added a built-in Capistrano recipe. [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.5.3 / September 24th, 2010
+### 0.5.3 / September 24th, 2010
 
 * Better regexes for replacing Whenever blocks in the crontab. #45 [Javan Makhmali]
 
 * Preserving backslashes when updating existing crontab. #82 [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.5.2 / September 15th, 2010
+### 0.5.2 / September 15th, 2010
 
 * Quotes automatically escaped in jobs. [Jay Adkisson]
 
@@ -25,7 +83,7 @@
 * Lots of internal reorganizing; tests broken into unit and functional. [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.5.0 / June 28th, 2010
+### 0.5.0 / June 28th, 2010
 
 * New job_type API for writing custom jobs. Internals use this to define command, runner, and rake. [Javan Makhmali - inspired by idlefingers (Damien)]
 
@@ -34,7 +92,7 @@
 * --clear option to remove crontab entries for a specific [identifier]. [mraidel (Michael Raidel)]
 
 
-== 0.4.2 / April 26th, 2010
+### 0.4.2 / April 26th, 2010
 
 * runners now cd into the app's directory and then execute. [Michael Guterl]
 
@@ -45,49 +103,49 @@
 * bugfix: comparison Time with 0 failed. #32 [Dan Hixon]
 
 
-== 0.4.1 / November 30th, 2009
+### 0.4.1 / November 30th, 2009
 
 * exit(0) instead of just exit to make JRuby happy. [Elan Meng]
 
 * Fixed activesupport deprecation warning by requiring active_support. #37 [Andrew Nesbitt]
 
 
-== 0.4.0 / October 20th, 2009
+### 0.4.0 / October 20th, 2009
 
 * New output option replaces the old cron_log option for output redirection and is much more flexible. #31 [Peer Allan]
 
 * Reorganized the lib files (http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2009/9/1/gem-packaging-best-practices) and switched to Jeweler from Echoe.
 
 
-== 0.3.7 / September 4th, 2009
+### 0.3.7 / September 4th, 2009
 
 * No longer tries (and fails) to combine @shortcut jobs. #20 [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.3.6 / June 15th, 2009
+### 0.3.6 / June 15th, 2009
 
 * Setting a PATH in the crontab automatically based on the user's PATH. [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.3.5 / June 13th, 2009
+### 0.3.5 / June 13th, 2009
 
 * Added ability to accept lists of every's and at's and intelligently group them. (ex: every 'monday, wednesday', :at => ['3pm', '6am']). [Sam Ruby]
 
 * Fixed issue with new lines. #18 [Javan Makhmali]
 
-== 0.3.1 / June 25th, 2009
+### 0.3.1 / June 25th, 2009
 
 * Removed activesupport gem dependency. #1 [Javan Makhmali]
 
 * Switched to numeric days of the week for Solaris support (and probably others). #8 [Roger Ertesvåg]
 
 
-== 0.3.0 / June 2nd, 2009
+### 0.3.0 / June 2nd, 2009
 
 * Added ability to set variables on the fly from the command line (ex: whenever --set environment=staging). [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.2.2 / April 30th, 2009
+### 0.2.2 / April 30th, 2009
 
 * Days of week jobs can now accept an :at directive (ex: every :monday, :at => '5pm'). [David Eisinger]
 
@@ -96,22 +154,22 @@
 * Raising an exception if someone tries to specify an :at with a cron shortcut (:day, :reboot, etc) so there are no false hopes. [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.1.7 / March 5th, 2009
+### 0.1.7 / March 5th, 2009
 
 * Added ability to update the crontab file non-destuctively instead of only overwriting it. [Javan Makhmali -- Inspired by code submitted individually from: Tien Dung (tiendung), Tom Lea (cwninja), Kyle Maxwell (fizx), and Andrew Timberlake (andrewtimberlake) on github]
 
 
-== 0.1.5 / February 19th, 2009
+### 0.1.5 / February 19th, 2009
 
 * Fixed load path so Whenever's files don't conflict with anything in Rails. Thanks Ryan Koopmans. [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.1.4 / February 17th, 2009
+### 0.1.4 / February 17th, 2009
 
 * Added --load-file and --user opts to whenever binary. [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.1.3 / February 16th, 2009
+### 0.1.3 / February 16th, 2009
 
 * Added 'rake' helper for defining scheduled rake tasks. [Javan Makhmali]
 
@@ -124,6 +182,6 @@
 * Requiring specific gem versions: Chronic >=0.2.3 and activesupport >= 1.3.0 [Javan Makhmali]
 
 
-== 0.1.0 / February 15th, 2009
+### 0.1.0 / February 15th, 2009
 
 * Initial release [Javan Makhmali]

data/Gemfile

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+source "http://rubygems.org"
+
+# Specify your gem's dependencies in newever.gemspec
+gemspec

data/LICENSE

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+Copyright (c) 2011 Javan Makhmali
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
+obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
+files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
+restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
+copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
+Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
+conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
+OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
+HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
+WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
+FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
+OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

data/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,165 @@
+Whenever is a Ruby gem that provides a clear syntax for writing and deploying cron jobs.
+
+### Installation
+
+```sh  
+$ gem install whenever
+```
+
+Or with Bundler in your Gemfile.
+
+```ruby
+gem 'whenever', :require => false
+```
+ 
+### Getting started
+
+```sh
+$ cd /apps/my-great-project
+$ wheneverize .
+```
+
+This will create an initial `config/schedule.rb` file for you.
+
+### Example schedule.rb file
+
+```ruby  
+every 3.hours do
+  runner "MyModel.some_process"       
+  rake "my:rake:task"                 
+  command "/usr/bin/my_great_command"
+end
+
+every 1.day, :at => '4:30 am' do 
+  runner "MyModel.task_to_run_at_four_thirty_in_the_morning"
+end
+
+every :hour do # Many shortcuts available: :hour, :day, :month, :year, :reboot
+  runner "SomeModel.ladeeda"
+end
+
+every :sunday, :at => '12pm' do # Use any day of the week or :weekend, :weekday 
+  runner "Task.do_something_great"
+end
+
+every '0 0 27-31 * *' do
+  command "echo 'you can use raw cron syntax too'"
+end
+```
+
+### Define your own job types
+
+Whenever ships with three pre-defined job types: command, runner, and rake. You can define your own with `job_type`.
+
+For example:
+
+```ruby
+job_type :awesome, '/usr/local/bin/awesome :task :fun_level'
+
+every 2.hours do
+  awesome "party", :fun_level => "extreme"
+end
+```
+  
+Would run `/usr/local/bin/awesome party extreme` every two hours. `:task` is always replaced with the first argument, and any additional `:whatevers` are replaced with the options passed in or by variables that have been defined with `set`.
+
+The default job types that ship with Whenever are defined like so:
+
+```ruby
+job_type :command, ":task :output"
+job_type :rake,    "cd :path && RAILS_ENV=:environment bundle exec rake :task --silent :output"
+job_type :runner,  "cd :path && script/rails runner -e :environment ':task' :output"
+```
+
+Pre-Rails 3 apps and apps that don't use Bundler will redefine the `rake` and `runner` jobs respectively to function correctly.
+
+If a `:path` is not set it will default to the directory in which `whenever` was executed. `:environment` will default to 'production'. `:output` will be replaced with your output redirection settings which you can read more about here: <http://github.com/javan/whenever/wiki/Output-redirection-aka-logging-your-cron-jobs>
+
+All jobs are by default run with `bash -l -c 'command...'`. Among other things, this allows your cron jobs to play nice with RVM by loading the entire environment instead of cron's somewhat limited environment. Read more: <http://blog.scoutapp.com/articles/2010/09/07/rvm-and-cron-in-production>
+
+You can change this by setting your own `:job_template`.
+
+```ruby
+set :job_template, "bash -l -c ':job'"
+```
+  
+Or set the job_template to nil to have your jobs execute normally.
+
+```ruby
+set :job_template, nil
+```
+
+### Capistrano integration
+
+Use the built-in Capistrano recipe for easy crontab updates with deploys.
+
+In your "config/deploy.rb" file:
+
+```ruby
+require "whenever/capistrano"
+```
+
+Take a look at the recipe for options you can set. <http://github.com/javan/whenever/blob/master/lib/whenever/capistrano.rb>
+For example, if you're using bundler do this:
+
+```ruby
+set :whenever_command, "bundle exec whenever"
+require "whenever/capistrano"
+```
+
+If you are using different environments (such as staging, production), then you may want to do this:
+
+```ruby
+set :whenever_environment, defer { stage }
+require "whenever/capistrano"
+```
+
+The capistrano variable `:stage` should be the one holding your environment name. This will make the correct `:environment` available in your `schedule.rb`.
+
+If both your environments are on the same server you'll want to namespace them or they'll overwrite each other when you deploy:
+
+```ruby
+set :whenever_environment, defer { stage }
+set :whenever_identifier, defer { "#{application}_#{stage}" }
+require "whenever/capistrano"
+```
+
+### RVM Integration
+
+If your production environment uses RVM (Ruby Version Manager) you will run into a gotcha that causes your cron jobs to hang.  This is not directly related to Whenever, and can be tricky to debug.  Your .rvmrc files must be trusted or else the cron jobs will hang waiting for the file to be trusted.  A solution is to disable the prompt by adding this line to your user rvm file in `~/.rvmrc`
+
+`rvm_trust_rvmrcs_flag=1`
+
+This tells rvm to trust all rvmrc files, which is documented here: http://wayneeseguin.beginrescueend.com/2010/08/22/ruby-environment-version-manager-rvm-1-0-0/
+
+### The `whenever` command
+
+```sh
+$ cd /apps/my-great-project
+$ whenever
+```
+  
+This will simply show you your `schedule.rb` file converted to cron syntax. It does not read or write your crontab file. Run `whenever --help` for a complete list of options.
+
+### Credit
+
+Whenever was created for use at Inkling (<http://inklingmarkets.com>). Their take on it: <http://blog.inklingmarkets.com/2009/02/whenever-easy-way-to-do-cron-jobs-from.html>
+
+Thanks to all the contributors who have made it even better: <http://github.com/javan/whenever/contributors>
+
+### Discussion / Feedback / Issues / Bugs
+
+For general discussion and questions, please use the google group: <http://groups.google.com/group/whenever-gem>
+
+If you've found a genuine bug or issue, please use the Issues section on github: <http://github.com/javan/whenever/issues>
+
+Ryan Bates created a great Railscast about Whenever: <http://railscasts.com/episodes/164-cron-in-ruby>
+It's a little bit dated now, but remains a good introduction.
+
+----
+
+Compatible with Ruby 1.8.7-1.9.2, JRuby, and Rubinius. [![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/javan/whenever.png)](http://travis-ci.org/javan/whenever)
+
+----
+
+Copyright &copy; 2011 Javan Makhmali

data/Rakefile

@@ -1,35 +1,17 @@
-require 'rubygems'
-require 'rake'
-
-require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/lib/whenever/version")
-
 begin
-  require 'jeweler'
-  Jeweler::Tasks.new do |gemspec|
-    gemspec.name        = "whenever"
-    gemspec.version     = Whenever::VERSION
-    gemspec.summary     = "Clean ruby syntax for writing and deploying cron jobs."
-    gemspec.description = "http://www.allyrics.net/Kid-Cudi/lyrics/Whenever/"
-    gemspec.email       = "javan@javan.us"
-    gemspec.homepage    = "http://github.com/javan/whenever"
-    gemspec.authors     = ["Javan Makhmali"]
-    gemspec.add_dependency 'aaronh-chronic', '>= 0.3.9'
-    gemspec.add_dependency 'activesupport', '>= 2.3.4'
-    gemspec.add_development_dependency 'shoulda', '>= 2.1.1'
-    gemspec.add_development_dependency 'mocha', '>= 0.9.5'
-  end
-  Jeweler::GemcutterTasks.new
-rescue LoadError
-  puts "Jeweler not available. Install it with: sudo gem install jeweler -s http://gemcutter.org"
+  require 'bundler'
+rescue LoadError => e
+  warn("warning: Could not load bundler: #{e}")
+  warn("         Some rake tasks will not be defined")
+else
+  Bundler::GemHelper.install_tasks
 end
 
 require 'rake/testtask'
 Rake::TestTask.new(:test) do |test|
-    test.libs      << 'lib' << 'test'
-    test.pattern   = 'test/{functional,unit}/**/*_test.rb'
-    test.verbose   = true
-  end
-
-task :test => :check_dependencies
+  test.libs      << 'lib' << 'test'
+  test.pattern   = 'test/{functional,unit}/**/*_test.rb'
+  test.verbose   = true
+end
 
 task :default => :test

data/bin/whenever

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env ruby
 
-require 'rubygems'
 require 'optparse'
 require 'whenever'
+require 'whenever/version'
 
 options = {}
 
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ OptionParser.new do |opts|
     options[:clear] = true
     options[:identifier] = identifier if identifier
   end
-  opts.on('-s', '--set [variables]', 'Example: --set environment=staging&path=/my/sweet/path') do |set|
+  opts.on('-s', '--set [variables]', 'Example: --set \'environment=staging&path=/my/sweet/path\'') do |set|
     options[:set] = set if set
   end
   opts.on('-f', '--load-file [schedule file]', 'Default: config/schedule.rb') do |file|

data/bin/wheneverize

@@ -17,17 +17,16 @@ OptionParser.new do |opts|
   end
 end
 
-if ARGV.empty?
-  abort "Please specify the directory to wheneverize, e.g. `#{File.basename($0)} .'"
-elsif !File.exists?(ARGV.first)
-  abort "`#{ARGV.first}' does not exist."
-elsif !File.directory?(ARGV.first)
-  abort "`#{ARGV.first}' is not a directory."
-elsif ARGV.length > 1
-  abort "Too many arguments; please specify only the directory to wheneverize."
+unless ARGV.empty?
+  if !File.exists?(ARGV.first)
+    abort "`#{ARGV.first}' does not exist."
+  elsif !File.directory?(ARGV.first)
+    abort "`#{ARGV.first}' is not a directory."
+  elsif ARGV.length > 1
+    abort "Too many arguments; please specify only the directory to wheneverize."
+  end
 end
 
-
 content = <<-FILE
 # Use this file to easily define all of your cron jobs.
 #
@@ -52,7 +51,7 @@ content = <<-FILE
 FILE
 
 file = 'config/schedule.rb'
-base = ARGV.shift
+base = ARGV.empty? ? '.' : ARGV.shift
 
 file = File.join(base, file)
 if File.exists?(file)

data/lib/whenever/capistrano.rb

@@ -1,31 +1,62 @@
 Capistrano::Configuration.instance(:must_exist).load do
-  
   _cset(:whenever_roles)        { :db }
   _cset(:whenever_command)      { "whenever" }
-  _cset(:whenever_identifier)   { application }
-  _cset(:whenever_update_flags) { "--update-crontab #{whenever_identifier}" }
-  _cset(:whenever_clear_flags)  { "--clear-crontab #{whenever_identifier}" }
-  
+  _cset(:whenever_identifier)   { fetch :application }
+  _cset(:whenever_environment)  { fetch :rails_env, "production" }
+  _cset(:whenever_update_flags) { "--update-crontab #{fetch :whenever_identifier} --set environment=#{fetch :whenever_environment}" }
+  _cset(:whenever_clear_flags)  { "--clear-crontab #{fetch :whenever_identifier}" }
+
   # Disable cron jobs at the begining of a deploy.
   after "deploy:update_code", "whenever:clear_crontab"
   # Write the new cron jobs near the end.
   after "deploy:symlink", "whenever:update_crontab"
   # If anything goes wrong, undo.
   after "deploy:rollback", "whenever:update_crontab"
-  
+
   namespace :whenever do
-    desc "Update application's crontab entries using Whenever"
-    task :update_crontab, :roles => whenever_roles do
-      # Hack by Jamis to skip a task if the role has no servers defined. http://tinyurl.com/ckjgnz
-      next if find_servers_for_task(current_task).empty?
-      run "cd #{current_path} && #{whenever_command} #{whenever_update_flags}"
+    desc <<-DESC
+      Update application's crontab entries using Whenever. You can configure \
+      the command used to invoke Whenever by setting the :whenever_command \
+      variable, which can be used with Bundler to set the command to \
+      "bundle exec whenever". You can configure the identifier used by setting \
+      the :whenever_identifier variable, which defaults to the same value configured \
+      for the :application variable. You can configure the environment by setting \
+      the :whenever_environment variable, which defaults to the same value \
+      configured for the :rails_env variable which itself defaults to "production". \
+      Finally, you can completely override all arguments to the Whenever command \
+      by setting the :whenever_update_flags variable. Additionally you can configure \
+      which servers the crontab is updated on by setting the :whenever_roles variable.
+    DESC
+    task :update_crontab do
+      options = { :roles => fetch(:whenever_roles) }
+
+      if find_servers(options).any?
+        on_rollback do
+          if fetch :previous_release
+            run "cd #{fetch :previous_release} && #{fetch :whenever_command} #{fetch :whenever_update_flags}", options
+          else
+            run "cd #{fetch :release_path} && #{fetch :whenever_command} #{fetch :whenever_clear_flags}", options
+          end
+        end
+
+        run "cd #{fetch :current_path} && #{fetch :whenever_command} #{fetch :whenever_update_flags}", options
+      end
     end
 
-    desc "Clear application's crontab entries using Whenever"
-    task :clear_crontab, :roles => whenever_roles do
-      next if find_servers_for_task(current_task).empty?
-      run "cd #{release_path} && #{whenever_command} #{whenever_clear_flags}"
+    desc <<-DESC
+      Clear application's crontab entries using Whenever. You can configure \
+      the command used to invoke Whenever by setting the :whenever_command \
+      variable, which can be used with Bundler to set the command to \
+      "bundle exec whenever". You can configure the identifier used by setting \
+      the :whenever_identifier variable, which defaults to the same value configured \
+      for the :application variable. Finally, you can completely override all \
+      arguments to the Whenever command by setting the :whenever_clear_flags variable. \
+      Additionally you can configure which servers the crontab is cleared on by setting \
+      the :whenever_roles variable.
+    DESC
+    task :clear_crontab do
+      options = { :roles => whenever_roles }
+      run "cd #{fetch :release_path} && #{fetch :whenever_command} #{fetch :whenever_clear_flags}", options if find_servers(options).any?
     end
   end
-  
-end
+end

data/lib/whenever/command_line.rb

@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ require 'tempfile'
 
 module Whenever
   class CommandLine
-    
     def self.execute(options={})
       new(options).run
     end
@@ -30,7 +29,6 @@ module Whenever
         exit(1)
       end
       @options[:cut] = @options[:cut].to_i
-      
     end
     
     def run
@@ -40,6 +38,8 @@ module Whenever
         write_crontab(whenever_cron)
       else
         puts Whenever.cron(@options)
+        puts "## [message] Above is your schedule file converted to cron syntax; your crontab file was not updated."
+        puts "## [message] Run `whenever --help' for more options."
         exit(0)
       end
     end
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ module Whenever
     end
   
     def whenever_cron
-      @whenever_cron ||= [comment_open, (Whenever.cron(@options) unless @options[:clear]), comment_close].compact.join("\n") + "\n"
+      return '' if @options[:clear]
+      @whenever_cron ||= [comment_open, Whenever.cron(@options), comment_close].compact.join("\n") + "\n"
     end
     
     def read_crontab
@@ -87,26 +88,34 @@ module Whenever
     
     def updated_crontab   
       # Check for unopened or unclosed identifier blocks
-      if read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}$") && (read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_close}$")).nil?
+      if read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}\s*$") && (read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_close}\s*$")).nil?
         warn "[fail] Unclosed indentifier; Your crontab file contains '#{comment_open}', but no '#{comment_close}'"
         exit(1)
-      elsif (read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}$")).nil? && read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_close}$")
+      elsif (read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}\s*$")).nil? && read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_close}\s*$")
         warn "[fail] Unopened indentifier; Your crontab file contains '#{comment_close}', but no '#{comment_open}'"
         exit(1)
       end
       
       # If an existing identier block is found, replace it with the new cron entries
-      if read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}$") && read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_close}$")
+      if read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}\s*$") && read_crontab =~ Regexp.new("^#{comment_close}\s*$")
         # If the existing crontab file contains backslashes they get lost going through gsub.
         # .gsub('\\', '\\\\\\') preserves them. Go figure.
-        read_crontab.gsub(Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}$.+^#{comment_close}$", Regexp::MULTILINE), whenever_cron.chomp.gsub('\\', '\\\\\\'))
+        read_crontab.gsub(Regexp.new("^#{comment_open}\s*$.+^#{comment_close}\s*$", Regexp::MULTILINE), whenever_cron.chomp.gsub('\\', '\\\\\\'))
       else # Otherwise, append the new cron entries after any existing ones
         [read_crontab, whenever_cron].join("\n\n")
-      end
+      end.gsub(/\n{3,}/, "\n\n") # More than two newlines becomes just two.
     end
     
     def prepare(contents)
-      contents.split("\n")[@options[:cut]..-1].join("\n")
+      # Strip n lines from the top of the file as specified by the :cut option.
+      # Use split with a -1 limit option to ensure the join is able to rebuild
+      # the file with all of the original seperators in-tact.
+      stripped_contents = contents.split($/,-1)[@options[:cut]..-1].join($/)
+
+      # Some cron implementations require all non-comment lines to be newline-
+      # terminated. (issue #95) Strip all newlines and replace with the default 
+      # platform record seperator ($/)
+      stripped_contents.gsub!(/\s+$/, $/)
     end
     
     def comment_base
@@ -120,6 +129,5 @@ module Whenever
     def comment_close
       "# End #{comment_base}"
     end
-    
   end
 end