From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 3 14:12:33 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F14037B401; Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:12:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from odin.ac.hmc.edu (Odin.AC.HMC.Edu [134.173.32.75]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BDBAE43F93; Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:12:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brdavis@odin.ac.hmc.edu) Received: from odin.ac.hmc.edu (IDENT:brdavis@localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by odin.ac.hmc.edu (8.12.9/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h63LCSq7025009; Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:12:28 -0700 Received: (from brdavis@localhost) by odin.ac.hmc.edu (8.12.9/8.12.3/Submit) id h63LCR3t025007; Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:12:27 -0700 Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 14:12:27 -0700 From: Brooks Davis To: Rich Morin Message-ID: <20030703211227.GA22445@Odin.AC.HMC.Edu> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="vtzGhvizbBRQ85DL" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-milter (http://amavis.org/) on odin.ac.hmc.edu cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: format of /etc/crontab? X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2003 21:12:33 -0000 --vtzGhvizbBRQ85DL Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 01:54:36PM -0700, Rich Morin wrote: > The cron(8) man page (on my FreeBSD 4.7 system) says: >=20 > Cron searches /var/cron/tabs for crontab files which are named after > accounts in /etc/passwd; crontabs found are loaded into memory. Cron > also searches for /etc/crontab which is in a different format (see > crontab(5)). >=20 > The crontab(5) man page, however, says nothing about any differences in > the file formats. Instead, it appears to describe only the format that > is used in /var/cron/tabs/* files. >=20 > I would like to know precisely how the format of /etc/crontab differs, > but I can't find any man page that addresses this. Help? Hmm, cron(8) mentions that /etc/crontab is in a difference format and refrences crontab(5), but you seems to be correct that crontab(5) doesn't mention the differences. I'm fairly sure the only difference is the who field between the time and command specifications. A bit of digging in the cron code found this comment: /* this function reads one crontab entry -- the next -- from a file. * it skips any leading blank lines, ignores comments, and returns * EOF if for any reason the entry can't be read and parsed. * * the entry is also parsed here. * * syntax: * user crontab: * minutes hours doms months dows cmd\n * system crontab (/etc/crontab): * minutes hours doms months dows USERNAME cmd\n */ -- Brooks --=20 Any statement of the form "X is the one, true Y" is FALSE. PGP fingerprint 655D 519C 26A7 82E7 2529 9BF0 5D8E 8BE9 F238 1AD4 --vtzGhvizbBRQ85DL Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/BJw6XY6L6fI4GtQRAlyyAJ9VVIJoa9sIoJkVr8Sz10cS0PKMmQCg14SR Z4BRCMWI4OqfsBoPjIS5UB0= =FK4K -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --vtzGhvizbBRQ85DL--