From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed Feb 16 13:55:20 2005
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 61F5016A4CF
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:55:20 +0000 (GMT)
Received: from mail24.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail24.sea5.speakeasy.net
	[69.17.117.26])	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2BDA243D5E
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:55:20 +0000 (GMT)
	(envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org)
Received: (qmail 16861 invoked from network); 16 Feb 2005 13:55:19 -0000
Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org)
	([66.92.78.145])
	(envelope-sender <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>)
	by mail24.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP
	for <peter@circlesquared.com>; 16 Feb 2005 13:55:19 -0000
Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147)
	id 1A05D7E; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 08:55:19 -0500 (EST)
Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org
To: Peter Risdon <peter@circlesquared.com>
References: <1108546855.23699.320.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com>
From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>
Date: 16 Feb 2005 08:55:18 -0500
In-Reply-To: <1108546855.23699.320.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com>
Message-ID: <447jl8boe1.fsf@be-well.ilk.org>
Lines: 24
User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: scripting crontab entries
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>,
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:55:20 -0000

Peter Risdon <peter@circlesquared.com> writes:

> I want to be able to update a user's crontab from a script. tabs
> in /var/cron/tabs carry a warning that the file should not be edited
> directly, so presumably something like
> 
> #echo "5 * * * *   /some/script.sh" >> /var/cron/tabs/$USER
> 
> is the wrong approach. Is the right approach:
> 
> #cat ~/.mycrontab
> 5 * * * *   /some/script.sh
> 
> #crontab ~/.mycrontab
> 
> The right way to go? I notice this approach blows away existing crontab
> entries, and was hoping to be able to append new ones instead, but then
> by treating ~/.mycrontab as the master file, I can manage this OK.

How about:

crontab -u $USER -l > crontab.file.$USER
echo "5 * * * *   /some/script.sh" >> crontab.file.$USER
crontab -u $USER crontab.file.$USER