UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,
I'm very new to Unix so please bear with me...

Here is my requirement:
I need to create a cron job to run two different scripts at 1 a.m. every day.

Here's what I did:
I used the "crontab -e" command and created a crontab file using the vi editor.
When I exit the editor using :wq, the file is created in the /var/spool/cron/crontabs directory under my username.
Typing the command "crontab -l" lists the cron jobs.

Here's my problem:
When I type exit and log off, the cron jobs are stopped and the crontab file with my username becomes empty!!! When I log back on and type "crontab -l", nothing is listed.


Here's my question:
How do I create a crontab such that the cron jobs specified remain alive even after I log off?

System is Solaris 9.

Thanks a lot for any advice given.

Folks,

I added the user (me ) to the "sys" group in the file /etc/group. Doing so seems to solve the problem. Now the user can log off without stopping the cron jobs.

Tommy, if you are reading this, thanks for your offer to help. If you like, you could still ask the admin exactly what happened here and post his explanation for the benefit of other readers.

I dont think this is the correct approach of doing it. I think there is another way of achieving your goal.

The 'nohup' (i.e No HangUP) command keeps a job running even after the user has logged off. So, whatever command u want to keep executing, just prefix the 'nohup' command before it and also, run this command in the background. For Example

nohup <Complete path of your program> &

Hope that helps

Hi skybird666, yogiB's problem is not how to keep a program executed at the prompt running after logging off. The problem was with cron and I am stumped with the solution.
I haven't seen cron give problems like this. We have housekeeping jobs and such defined in cron for several users that aren't in the sys group and there is no such problem...