UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

When I do a crontab -l I get the following listing:

[root@mail-02 cron.daily]# crontab -l
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/crontab.13826 installed on Thu Jun 23 10:13:18 2005)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
#0 1 * * * scp /tmp/ypfile2 creek://tmp
59 20 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /backup/mail-02_sda3.sh >/tmp/dumplog_nst2.log 2>&1
59 20 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /backup/mail-02_sdb1.sh >/tmp/dumplog_nst1.log 2>&1
#45 18 * * 1,2,3,4,5,6 /root/dump.sh >/tmp/dumplog.txt 2>&1
#00 10 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /root/dump2.sh >/tmp/dumplog2.txt 2>&1
30 14 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /root/crons/UsersList.pl >/dev/null 2>&1
#05 9 * * * /root/crons/du_file.sh >/tmp/du_errors.txt || mail -s "du_file.sh didn't run" root@swi.com < /tmp/du_errors.txt
0 8 * * * /root/crons/etcBack.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
30 11 * * * /bin/chown -R pavisit:users /home/pavisit/ >> /var/log/messages
00 21 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /backup/dmzback > /backup/logs/backup.log 2>&1
00 9,21 * * 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 /usr/sbin/ntpdate 205.150.86.60 > /dev/null 2>&1
0 * * * * /root/clean_post

When I go to /etc/crontab I just see:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
------------

I have looked for other crontabs but cannot find any. What file is crontab -l listing? And I am logged in as root when I ran crontab and checked /etc/crontab.

To edit do a

Code:

crontab -e

The actual files are at:

/var/spool/cron

BUT you are not supposed to edit the files directly. Use crontab -e

For more info:

Code:

# man crontab

So what is /etc/crontab for?

When I do crontab -e I see completely different information than I do for /etc/crontab.

Did you try what Ikon said?

also

Code:

# man cron

/etc/crontab is system crontabs file. Usually only used by root user or daemons to configure system wide jobs. All individual user must must use crontab command to install and edit their jobs as described above. /var/spool/cron/ or /var/cron/tabs/ is directory for personal user crontab files. It must be backup with users home directory.

Additionally, cron reads the files in /etc/cron.d/ directory. Usually system daemon such as sa-update or sysstat places their cronjob here. As a root user or superuser you can use following directories to configure cronjobs. You can directly drop your scripts here. run-parts command run scripts or programs in a directory via /etc/crontab

Directory Description
/etc/cron.d/ Put all scripts here and call them from /etc/crontab file.
/etc/cron.daily/ Run all scripts once a day
/etc/cron.hourly/ Run all scripts once an hour
/etc/cron.monthly/ Run all scripts once a month
/etc/cron.weekly/ Run all scripts once a week

So if I put a script in /etc/cron.daily it wil run according to how scipts are configured to run for cron.daily in /etc/crontab right?

Yes, if you put a script in /etc/cron.daily it will run everyday at 04:02am, assuming your script is correctly written. Just because it runs from the shell prompt does NOT mean it will run from cron. You will have to search the forum(s) for specifics.

Remember the following are VERY helpful:
1) The search function on this website
2) man pages
3) google search