Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 19:48:58 +0200 From: Rick Hoekman <rick@paranoia.nl> To: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re[2]: Cron job question Message-ID: <6354193152.20030822194858@paranoia.nl> In-Reply-To: <20030822174159.GA93473@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> References: <144352351144.20030822191816@paranoia.nl> <20030822174159.GA93473@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hello Matthew, Thank you for taking the time explaining it to me! Rick Friday, August 22, 2003, 7:41:59 PM, you wrote: MS> On Fri, Aug 22, 2003 at 07:18:16PM +0200, Rick Hoekman wrote: >> I am getting this message every 5 minutes. Can somebody explain to me >> why root apparently is not found here? >> >> >> X-Original-To: root@somedomain.nl >> Delivered-To: root@hoekmansysteembeheer.nl >> From: root@somedomain.nl (Cron Daemon) >> To: root@hoekmansysteembeheer.nl >> Subject: Cron <root@somedomain> root /usr/libexec/atrun >> X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh> >> X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/etc:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin> >> X-Cron-Env: <HOME=/root> >> X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root> >> X-Cron-Env: <USER=root> Date: Fri, 22 Aug >> 2003 19:05:00 +0200 (CEST) root: not found >> MS> You've made the classic mistake of confusing the system crontab MS> (/etc/crontab) and the user specific crontabs that live in MS> /var/cron/tabs. These are quite different files. MS> The system crontab /etc/crontab is not user specific: thus it has an MS> extra column defining which user ID the command should be run as. In MS> general you shouldn't need to touch this file at all -- it's where MS> standard stuff like the 'at' queue, newsyslog and the MS> daily/weekly/monthly periodic functions are run from. If you must MS> alter this file, just edit it directly: cron(8) will pick up the MS> changes in a minute or so. In particular you do not need to use MS> crontab(1) to manage this file. MS> The per-user crontabs are what you would expect if you're familiar MS> with the SysV or Linux style cron(8) daemon. Each user has their own MS> crontab file, which is managed using the crontab(1) command. In MS> general it's a good policy to use the per-user crontab stuff to add MS> any new cron jobs for any user (including root) and leave the system MS> /etc/crontab in it's default state. MS> The error you're seeing suggests to me that what you've done is run MS> crontab(1) on /etc/crontab, and the extra column containing the userid MS> is being interpreted as a command that cron should run. However, MS> there is no command 'root', hence the error message. To fix, make MS> sute that /etc/crontab contains the default contents by copying over MS> /usr/src/etc/crontab or running mergemaster(1). Backup and delete the MS> root crontab you've generated: MS> # crontab -l -u root > /tmp/root.crontab MS> # crontab -r -u root MS> Now, if root.crontab contains substantively the same as /etc/crontab, MS> you're done. Otherwise, if you need to add some extra root cron jobs, MS> edit /tmp/root.crontab to strip out the default stuff, leaving only MS> you extra jobs. Don't put a username in column 6 of the file: rather MS> that should be the last column and contain the command to run, as per MS> crontab(5). Once edited to your liking load the new crontab file into MS> the system: MS> # vi /tmp/root.crontab MS> # crontab -u root /tmp/root.crontab MS> Cheers, MS> Matthew
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?6354193152.20030822194858>