hello,

just wondering. Whenever I edit the root crontab through crontab -e,
changes are never saved. Not a problem though, i could by editing
directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root

But I was wondering if it was a feature. I just wanted to change the
hour for the cron.hourly and noticed this behavior.

I am running slackware 9.0

thanks

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paf the dog
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paf the dog <pafbaboonlechien@neuf.fr> writes:

> hello,
>
> just wondering. Whenever I edit the root crontab through crontab -e,
> changes are never saved. Not a problem though, i could by editing
> directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
>
> But I was wondering if it was a feature. I just wanted to change the
> hour for the cron.hourly and noticed this behavior.

Are you using Vim as your editor?

Have a look at this thread - Google is your friend :-)

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?th...rk hill.me.uk


hth

Glyn
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Glyn Millington grumbled:
> paf the dog <pafbaboonlechien@neuf.fr> writes:
>
>> hello,
>>
>> just wondering. Whenever I edit the root crontab through crontab -e,
>> changes are never saved. Not a problem though, i could by editing
>> directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
>>
>> But I was wondering if it was a feature. I just wanted to change the
>> hour for the cron.hourly and noticed this behavior.
>
> Are you using Vim as your editor?
>
> Have a look at this thread - Google is your friend :-)

argh what a piece of sh... I am

many thanks Glyn, VISUAL="/usr/bin/vi" crontab -e did the trick
(or simply :set compatible, either)

I should have checked google first

funny compatible mode is required for root's crontab and not user's

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paf the dog
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> VISUAL="/usr/bin/vi" crontab -e did the trick

There is an even easier way to edit your crontab file:

crontab -l > /tmp/crontab.txt
(use your favorite editor to edit /tmp/crontab.txt)
crontab /tmp/crontab.txt

regards Henrik
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Henrik Carlqvist grumbled:
>> VISUAL="/usr/bin/vi" crontab -e did the trick
>
> There is an even easier way to edit your crontab file:
>
> crontab -l > /tmp/crontab.txt
> (use your favorite editor to edit /tmp/crontab.txt)
> crontab /tmp/crontab.txt

thanks Henrik

atually I seldomly change anything in root's crontab (it is the first
time) and I change very few, so, just :set compatible while editing is
enough for me.

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paf the dog
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paf the dog <pafbaboonlechien@neuf.fr> writes:

> argh what a piece of sh... I am

Now, now - don't abuse yourself - there are plenty of folk here to do
that for you :-)

> I should have checked google first

The links below are v. useful!

atb

Glyn
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GAFC http://slackbook.lizella.net/
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GAFL http://www.xemacs.org http://www.gnus.org/

paf the dog wrote:
>Not a problem though, i could by editing
> directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
>

I've been wondering if it's wrong to edit that file directly.
Is it? If so, why?

Thanks in advance,

StevenR

Steven grumbled:
> paf the dog wrote:
>>Not a problem though, i could by editing
>> directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
>>
>
> I've been wondering if it's wrong to edit that file directly.
> Is it? If so, why?

as far as I know, crontab -e notifies the daemon that the file is
updated.

If I update manually the file (well I tried with one of a user) the
action does not take place. I think that restarting the daemon would
make the update effective, though. I assume the files are scanned on
daemon start

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paf the dog
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On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:57:20 GMT, Steven <foo@spam.com> wrote:

>paf the dog wrote:
>>Not a problem though, i could by editing
>> directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
>>
>
>I've been wondering if it's wrong to edit that file directly.
>Is it? If so, why?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>StevenR

It is OK if you are careful. I do it all the time without problems.
Well, one problem: cron only looks for changes once an hour and it is
not possible to know when it does its scan. So a change might be
ignored for as much as an hour...

I cannot find anything in the source that indicates that using crontab
-e causes the /cron/crontabs files to be rescanned.

buck

>>>Not a problem though, i could by editing
>>> directly /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
>>>
>>
>>I've been wondering if it's wrong to edit that file directly.
>>Is it? If so, why?

> It is OK if you are careful. I do it all the time without problems.
> Well, one problem: cron only looks for changes once an hour and it is
> not possible to know when it does its scan. So a change might be
> ignored for as much as an hour...
>
> I cannot find anything in the source that indicates that using crontab
> -e causes the /cron/crontabs files to be rescanned.

It leaves a /var/spool/cron/crontabs/cron.update file, containing the
username whos cron file should be reread. I think cron checks for this file
once in a minute.


--
damjan