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Date:      Wed, 22 May 1996 10:19:54 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Dan Busarow <dan@dpcsys.com>
To:        Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: CRON: it loves me
Message-ID:  <Pine.SV4.3.91.960522094948.10288A-100000@cedb>
In-Reply-To: <199605220636.IAA13184@keltia.freenix.fr>

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On Wed, 22 May 1996, Ollivier Robert wrote:
> You're    not  supposed to  have    a  cron  file   for  "root" except  for
> /etc/crontab... Or  you have to   be careful  of  what  you put  in  either
> one. They do not have the same format. 
> 
> That's not to say you can't do it. It is just  that it is not the preferred
> way.

Since I've been running BSD for less than a year (with around 10 years 
SYSV experience) I'm hardly an expert on the "right" or preferred way.

But...  If I only had the man pages to go on (and that's pretty much
the case) I'd have to conclude that /etc/crontab is an artifact and
probably deprecated.  /etc/crontab gets a passing mention in cron(8)
where it simply says that it has a different format.  Every other
man page refers to crontab(1) and the /var/cron/tabs scheme.

If there really is a reason for root to use /etc/crontab vs. crontab(1)
I think it should be documented somewhere.  And I'd like to hear what
the reasons are even if they never get formally documented.

Dan
-- 
 Dan Busarow                                      714 443 4172
 DPC Systems
 Dana Point, California




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