From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Sep  2 20:10:37 2010
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 67303106580D
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Sep 2010 20:10:37 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from gibblertron@gmail.com)
Received: from mail-qw0-f54.google.com (mail-qw0-f54.google.com
	[209.85.216.54])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24ED48FC1A
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  2 Sep 2010 20:10:36 +0000 (UTC)
Received: by qwg5 with SMTP id 5so1001111qwg.13
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:10:36 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
	h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:date:message-id
	:subject:from:to:content-type;
	bh=hPgYqORSnTnTSCDFLTVlyVMr6Jv+dW7IK/EydJJNVXo=;
	b=wJors8wEs6lmyqEu455XxzOQMt9zE9VbJAiBTFU4sNxf5VwF48/tR0aWqg7j7CxzA8
	W116PnSk5qk2PSou/wOlMsQT/ri0UqvLXv/8wyzXA3FMAlsLWyDgcLFkUSq3RDrM1BuW
	F60eRsJOfKiqJKO9UoiVZPnl8q7Kn6g6g13tA=
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
	h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type;
	b=phHy3icnzWIeQirEjyrixGNwh8y+rUaA309AdtSun6IBMsPXjKjUMpW7uNRh/RFit1
	LMCJkH/GIA7XBGqlXm3O0kzDePb7+kYj8yKtMYdsk9QVlRAJxXVnuk7POB6Rqcopkl9e
	DLaNy6TDAfE2D70nANlDtWbFpC9RhXgaorYZA=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.224.6.136 with SMTP id 8mr41326qaz.149.1283456554673; Thu, 02
	Sep 2010 12:42:34 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.224.20.74 with HTTP; Thu, 2 Sep 2010 12:42:34 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 12:42:34 -0700
Message-ID: <AANLkTing=YCBQWYanuKa1NHBcBoCX6Fhyg=zGA+ebtvA@mail.gmail.com>
From: patrick <gibblertron@gmail.com>
To: FreeBSD Questions Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Subject: 8.1: Cron ignoring crontab updates
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
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: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:10:37 -0000

I recently upgraded a FreeBSD 7.0 system to 8.1-RELEASE (via
freebsd-update) and am experiencing the strangest cron problem I have
ever seen.

My cron jobs run, but if I make any changes to my crontab, cron does
not pick them up; it continues to operate based on the snapshot of
crontabs it loaded when cron was started up. If I restart cron
(/etc/rc.d/cron restart), the changes are then picked up, but again,
any subsequent changes are ignored. I don't see any issues with the
permissions, and when I edit a crontab, it says "crontab: installing
new crontab", and the /var/log/cron log shows BEGIN EDIT, REPLACE, and
END EDIT.

I'm somewhat at a loss to figure out where the disconnect is, and it's
impractical for me to have to restart cron any time any user updates
their crontab. Has anyone come across this?

Patrick