Query regarding cron jobs

[Jonathan S Billings]

On 09/29/2011 03:16 AM, Ankit Mahawar wrote:
>> It is easy for a package to add/remove a file from /etc/cron.d .. a little
>> harder to edit /etc/crontab
>
> How can we print the entries in /etc/cron.d  through commnad line as it not
> showing any entries  crontab -l as the entry in /etc/cron.d is for root
> user .

The entries in /etc/cron.d should look very similar to what you see in 
/etc/crontab -- basically, everything in /etc/cron.d/ are just 
additional fragments of a greater crontab that includes /etc/crontab and 
every file in /etc/cron.d/.  If you just 'cat /etc/crontab 
/etc/cron.d/*' you'll see all the non-user crontab entries.

I'll note that running 'crontab -l' as root *DOES NOT* show the entries 
in /etc/crontab, but rather the entries in /var/spool/cron/root.  The 
syntax for the root crontab differs from the /etc/crontab and 
/etc/cron.d/* entries.  In the user crontabs, you don't need to list the 
user in the sixth column, since that is implied.  That user is required 
in the system-wide crontab files.


-- 
Jonathan Billings <jsbillin at umich.edu>
College of Engineering - CAEN - Unix and Linux Support