Hi all, i am trying to reduce the file size of /var/adm/wtmp in my AIX servers and im using the method cp /dev/null /var/adm/wtmp to reduce it. I thought of automating it by including this command into crontab. Surprisingly, it doesn't work once i put into crontab, there is no error message thrown out, no messages, no output in fact it seems as though that command was not executed at all. How come? I tried typing manually the command and it works it only doesn't work in crontab. Any suggestion?

Please give an example of the entry from the crontab. I bet it is because you are not using the absolute path of cp as in /usr/bin/cp.

I tried with full path and it doesnt work too. By the way the command i use is:

1 * * * * /usr/bin/cp /dev/null /var/adm/wtmp

THe reason i let it run every minute is because at this moment i want to monitor hence a 1 minute wait is the most appropriate.

No wonder /usr/bin/cp /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmp

I am wrong now disregard my last entry!

Try /usr/bin/cat /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmp

How come i need to add the > but via command line i do not need to use that? How often will it update the log file for cron? Once i've modified i do not see it in the /var/adm/cron/log file immediately. It still doesn't work after i did that:

1 * * * * /usr/bin/cp /dev/null > /var/adm/wtmp