cron strangeness

[rgmhtt]

I 'detected' some strangeness with cron because I am not getting any emails to root of cron jobs, yet /var/log/cron is updated hourly with info that cron jobs are executing.

So I finally google a bit to get some tutorial on cron and find to look at /etc/crontab and lo and behold it is empty!:

# cat /etc/crontab
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# For details see man 4 crontabs

# Example of job definition:
# .---------------- minute (0 - 59)
# | .------------- hour (0 - 23)
# | | .---------- day of month (1 - 31)
# | | | .------- month (1 - 12) OR jan,feb,mar,apr ...
# | | | | .---- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0 or 7) OR sun,mon,tue,wed,thu,fri,sat
# | | | | |
# * * * * * command to be executed

So I go over and look at an older Amahi book (my email server that I have not really touched for 1/2 a year):

# cat /etc/crontab
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

So obviously some differences.

How is cron running right now and how do I get email reports? I have added an alias for root to an email account.

[surfrock66]

I have never been able to get a cronjob to run correctly on my Amahi box. Neither as root or as a user.

I have a script that resets the permissions on my transmission downloads, and I'd love it to go every 15 minutes. I eventually compromised on a desktop launcher, but still.

[bigfoot65]

I have cron jobs set and running on my box. Recommend you try using the apache crontab. I have some there and in root. Also, ensure the cronie (I think) RPM is installed. All appear to be working fine. I also use Webmin to change them versus CLI.

[rgmhtt]

I have cron jobs set and running on my box. Recommend you try using the apache crontab. I have some there and in root. Also, ensure the cronie (I think) RPM is installed. All appear to be working fine. I also use Webmin to change them versus CLI.

It seems from /var/log/cron that cron jobs are running on my box too, even though /etc/crontab is empty...

What is apache crontab? Are you talking about user crontabs as the comment about root seems to imply?

cronie is installed.

I am trying to get what I consider basic functions working without resorting to tools like webmin and getting reports about what cron is doing seems rather basic to me.

[bigfoot65]

Well, I do crontab -e as root to do root's cron jobs...then add -uapache to do that users. My /etc/crontab has the basic stuff just like yours.

Does that help? Don't have to use Webmin, just has a nice interface that's all. I do it CLI often.

[cpg]

good catch! i noticed some strangeness with crontab as well a bit ago. starting in august, to be precise. i have been super busy and did not have a chance to look at this.

my daily rsnapshots stoppped! at least the daily cron jobs were lost somehow!?!

i do see an upstream issue that is precisely what we have here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=505778

however, that does not explain things stopping in august - though i did not update my machine in a long time (i like stability and test against the released bits).

in my case, my machine has been running fedora bits for a LONG time, probably pre-f11.

yours on the other hand is a fresh install.

this is something that we may have to patch in amahi if in fact f14 does not fix it.

in the mean time, copying the entries will work.

[bigfoot65]

Not sure if this is of any help. I found this today and am going to check mine this afternoon to see how it's set up. I have one daily job that is not executing and I believe this is why.

http://tinyurl.com/27hpq5j

[rgmhtt]

Not sure if this is of any help. I found this today and am going to check mine this afternoon to see how it's set up. I have one daily job that is not executing and I believe this is why.

http://tinyurl.com/27hpq5j

Good. Now we know how the cron stuff is running. BUT

Why no mail of the cron job outputs? I am getting them hourly from my older system (the one running my mail server).

And it is not because sendmail is not running. I started sendmail and waited for an hourly cron to run, and no mail output from it.