Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Please, help to make cron available for non-root users.
I want to back-up automatically weekly or so, but I get a message: Cron is not yet available as non-root.
How can I make it available for non-root?
Is there a particular reason you can't do your backup as root? I think that to backup any files owned by root you will have to be root when doing the backup.
I don't know. What's the common (safe) way of doing backup?
If its root in gui, ok, I'll do it as root in gui. If its more common to backup in user mode, I'd like to do it in user mode.
Please, advise.
Using root for the backups is probably the most common. Root can read any file regardless of permissions, and that means he can backup any user's files and system files in one script.
If you use a regular user to make backups, you can only backup files that users owns (or that belong to that user's group). On the plus side, you don't have to log in as root to restore your backups.
To answer your original question, there are two files (for the version of cron that I'm familiar with): cron.allow and cron.deny. I believe all you have to do is add the name the user into the appropriate file. I think cron defaults to "deny" if the user is not listed in either file.
although it sounds like you were talked out of doing what you wanted to do, here is how to edit per user cron entries should the need ever arise for something else:
crontab -e
Not sure what distros install it and at what software selection it is included. I just went to my x86 linux box and it was not present but it is on my FreeBSD box. I've also encountered it on just about any commercial UNIX I've managed.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.