All, Despite the current man page, downtime should be specified as one of these: DOWNTIME=day:starttime:endtime[,day:starttime:endtime] DOWNTIME=columns:day:starttime:endtime:cause[,columns:day:starttime:endt ime:cause] The code is not written to handle just four arguments (day:starttime:endtime:cause OR columns:day:starttime:endtime). Cheers.