How to create a non recurring schedule

manuelf

Hi,
I'm using pfSense version 2.8.1 and I'd like to schedule a rule on a NON recurring schedule, but only on a specific day.
For example I need to activate a rule for today with a specific time range.

If I try to do this I notice that this schedule will be active every year on this specific day, and I don't need this.
This morning I find an active schedule that I configure one year ago.

Thanks.
Best Regards,
Manuel

patient0

@manuelf cron is not the tool for that, you can use the command at (FreeBSD manual page: at) for runnig a job once.

If you must use cron then one option is that the script you run once creates a file (e.g /root/.my-job.ran, empty or not). And your script check if that file exists. And if yes, the script aborts.

SteveITS

@manuelf said in How to create a non recurring schedule:

this schedule will be active every year on this specific day

That's an interesting callout, I hadn't realized. The way I'm using it (for my son), it's weekday ranges and we add exceptions. And I've been deleting those when I add another.

It's misleading if the "month" field shows a year ("December_25"). But you're right the range shows a month+day and the config file doesn't have a year. Apparently it requires manual deletion.

SteveITS

The docs actually say, "A schedule can apply to specific days, such as September 2, 2016..."

However if I choose a day in either this month or January 2026 it adds this without a year:

<timerange>
<month>12</month>
<day>25</day>
<hour>3:00-23:59</hour>
<rangedescr><![CDATA[test]]></rangedescr>
</timerange>

Am I missing something? If not I can create a redmine...

SteveITS

I went ahead and created https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/16569.

SteveITS

It was closed already as "not a bug" [edit: because years are not supported] so I made https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/16570 to change the docs.

manuelf

Thanks, I understand that is not possible to configure a temporary schedule, but only recurring schedule.

Normally I need to enable, for a few hours or days, a remote access to our suppliers and for me is very useful an expire option of the rule like other firewall.

How can I set a temporary rule in pfSense?

SteveITS

@manuelf Apparently it’s not possible.

You can pretty quickly disable a rule in the GUI by clicking the icons and Applying. Then the schedule (next year) should be irrelevant, I would think.

manuelf

Yes, I know, but the key point is the security, and for me is better avoid to remember to disable it.

Thanks you for your time.