Date: Sun, 03 Jan 1999 16:18:53 -0800 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: "Stephen J. Roznowski" <sjr@home.net> Cc: mike@smith.net.au, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why is root's crontab different? Message-ID: <199901040018.QAA08388@dingo.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 03 Jan 1999 18:15:54 EST." <199901032315.SAA04839@istari.home.net>
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> > From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> > > > > > > From: "Brian W. Buchanan" <brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU> > > > > > > > > On Sun, 3 Jan 1999, Stephen J. Roznowski wrote: > > > > > In tracking down the cause of my "/var/log/maillog.0: No such file > > > > > or directory" errors from newsyslog, I "discovered" that I had both > > > > > a root crontab entry and /etc/crontab. Both of these were running > > > > > newsyslog at the same time and they were conflicting with each > > > > > other. > > > > > > > > > > My question is why is root's crontab entry treated differently (i.e. > > > > > a file in /etc) as opposed to just having a crontab (in /var/cron/tabs)? > > > > > > > > /etc/crontab allows you to specify the user who commands should be run as > > > > > > I understand the difference, but why would this be better than installing > > > crontabs for the various (system) users? (for example, news). > > > > Because /etc/crontab is controlled by the adminstrator, while the > > user's contab is controlled by the user. > > [Not trying to be argumentative here....] > > In the case of root, what is the difference? [Or any of the "system users", > like news, etc...] They grow out of generalising fundamentally different approaches. The per-user crontab is a mechanism whereby any user can arrange to have cron run jobs for them. The system crontab in /etc is a mechanism whereby the administrator can arrange to have jobs run as any user. The overlap creates a little duplication of functionality, but it's by no means a conflict. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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