crontab -e username doesn't work

BiThian · 10-13-2006, 01:27 AM

Every time I try that command, in /var/spool/cron appears an empty file like crontab.3435~ , but my /var/spool/cron/crontabs/username file is still 0 bytes length. What am I doing wrong?

b0uncer · 10-13-2006, 01:30 AM

Did you save the file? When you start

Code:

crontab -e [username]

you start a text-editor, and after you've edited the cron file and saved, only then the actual cron file gets altered. As long as you don't save, the original file is not altered (or even opened, if I'm right). And if the original cronfile is empty when you begin, it's length is zero indeed, until you save some information to it.

Try to edit the file, add an entry, save, exit and re-open it again with crontab -e and see if that brings you something.

BiThian · 10-13-2006, 01:37 AM

I saved it and now appeared another crontab.54354~ file, but this time filled (I guess I should have entered a newline at the end), but the problem remains: why isn't username file modified?

BiThian · 10-13-2006, 10:31 AM

I chose to use "crontab filename -u user". However, now I have another problem: can you tell me how to run a script as root, being logged as an ordinary user? And that without editing sudoers file or any suid. Thanks.
LE: From crontab, of course