hi all ,
I got one problem
I want to write "1" into a file every three hours .
I want to use cron , beeing root ( using the root crontab).
What i do is :
-log in being root ,
-type "crontab -e root"
-the file opened is not blank , there already is the hourly , dayly,
monthly ... stuff into it ,
- i append this :
0 *3/ * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to
- i save + close the editor
- if i type "crontab -l root" , then the line i appended is not present .
- if a wait , the job is not done .


- if i directly edit /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root , by appending my line
the line is then shown when i call crontab -l root .
but was it the cleanest way ?

- if i make the same procedure but with an user , all is OK . i dont have to
edit /var/spool/cron/crontabs/$user

what did i miss ?

I run SLack 9.1 .

Tnaks in advance for you help .

--
http://mrakotom.free.fr

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 13:08:45 +0100,
Rakotomandimby <mrakotom@free.fr> wrote:

> I want to use cron , beeing root ( using the root crontab).
> What i do is :
> -log in being root ,
> -type "crontab -e root"
> -the file opened is not blank , there already is the hourly , dayly,
> monthly ... stuff into it ,
> - i append this :
> 0 *3/ * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to

I think that should be
0 */3 * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to

> - i save + close the editor
> - if i type "crontab -l root" , then the line i appended is not present .
> - if a wait , the job is not done .

Are you using vim? If so, you might need to add ':set compatible' to
make your crontab entry stick. The archives have more info about this,
IIRC.


--
Mark Hill <usenet@mark.ukfsn.org> (Yahoo address not read)
GPG KeyID: 4A3B58AC

Mark Hill wrote:

>> - i append this :
>> 0 *3/ * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to
>
> I think that should be
> 0 */3 * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to

Yes it is ...it was just a typing error when copying it here...

> Are you using vim? If so, you might need to add ':set compatible' to
> make your crontab entry stick. The archives have more info about this,
> IIRC.

To avoid any troll-like thing , i did not mention my editor , but i use
Emacs to do it .

--
http://mrakotom.free.fr

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 13:08:45 +0100, Rakotomandimby wrote:

> hi all ,
> I got one problem
> I want to write "1" into a file every three hours .
> I want to use cron , beeing root ( using the root crontab).
> What i do is :
> -log in being root ,
> -type "crontab -e root"
> -the file opened is not blank , there already is the hourly , dayly,
> monthly ... stuff into it ,
> - i append this :
> 0 *3/ * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to
> - i save + close the editor
> - if i type "crontab -l root" , then the line i appended is not present .
> - if a wait , the job is not done .
>
>
> - if i directly edit /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root , by appending my line
> the line is then shown when i call crontab -l root .
> but was it the cleanest way ?
>
> - if i make the same procedure but with an user , all is OK . i dont have to
> edit /var/spool/cron/crontabs/$user
>
> what did i miss ?
>
> I run SLack 9.1 .
>
> Tnaks in advance for you help .

Just curious, are you using vim or elvis as your editor?

I also have the exact same problem and it seems to be related to vim and
to .vimrc

By default in slackware 9.1 /usr/bin/vi is a link to /usr/bin/elvis, which
creates no problem in editing root's crontab with 'crontab -e root'. Now I
don't use elvis so my /usr/bin/vi links to /usr/bin/vim instead, and again
there is no problem using 'crontab -e root'.

However, when I create a .vimrc file in /root, even if this file has
nothing but comments in it, 'crontab -e root' suddenly stops registering
changes to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root, even though the temporary file
created by crontab /var/spool/cron/crontab.XXX DOES register the changes I
make. All the permissions seem to be ok, and I've run into this problem in
every slack box I've worked on.

I can still edit root's crontab directly of course, and every other user
can edit their crontabs with 'crontab -e' using vim and the exact same
..vimrc in their home directories.

It's simple enough to reproduce this problem:
(as root)

rm /usr/bin/vi
ln -s /usr/bin/vim /usr/bin/vi
touch ~/.vimrc
crontab -e (and any changes won't be made to /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root)

Any ideas?

Jazzcat wrote:
> Any ideas?

I found that :
http://braille.uwo.ca/pipermail/spea...il/020328.html

I think root's crontab is not editable ( according to the first line of this
post .. )

I'm searching further ...
--
http://mrakotom.free.fr

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 13:28:47 +0000, Mark Hill wrote:

> On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 13:08:45 +0100,
> Rakotomandimby <mrakotom@free.fr> wrote:
>
>> I want to use cron , beeing root ( using the root crontab).
>> What i do is :
>> -log in being root ,
>> -type "crontab -e root"
>> -the file opened is not blank , there already is the hourly , dayly,
>> monthly ... stuff into it ,
>> - i append this :
>> 0 *3/ * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to
>
> I think that should be
> 0 */3 * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to
>
>> - i save + close the editor
>> - if i type "crontab -l root" , then the line i appended is not present .
>> - if a wait , the job is not done .
>
> Are you using vim? If so, you might need to add ':set compatible' to
> make your crontab entry stick. The archives have more info about this,
> IIRC.

Just made a post to this thread. You're right setting vim to compatability
mode fixes this. Doh!

"Rakotomandimby" <mrakotom@free.fr> wrote:
>> 0 */3 * * * echo 1 > /file_to_write_to
>
> Yes it is ...it was just a typing error when copying it here...

> To avoid any troll-like thing , i did not mention my editor , but i use
> Emacs to do it .

Maybe it would help to do the following:

crontab -l > /tmp/crontab.root
emacs /tmp/crontab.root
crontab /tmp/crontab.root

I used to do it that way with Slackware 8. So far with Slackware 9.1 I
have only added scripts to /etc/cron.*

regards Henrik
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