no crontab for root

thomas2004ch · 10-25-2013, 04:05 AM

Hi,

As I run the command

Code:

crontab -e

I got error message:

Code:

no crontab for root - using an empty one
crontab: no changes made to crontab

But I can open the /etc/crontab which has contents as follow:

Code:

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

What could be the problem?

druuna · 10-25-2013, 04:10 AM

/etc/crontab is the system wide crontab not the crontab that belongs to user root.

Individual crontabs, if present, are stored in /var/spool/cron or /var/spool/cron/crontabs (do not edit these files!!!)

thomas2004ch · 10-25-2013, 04:53 AM

you haven't answered my question.

druuna · 10-25-2013, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomas2004ch

you haven't answered my question.

I didn't?

There is not error message, just 2 informative messages.

no crontab for root - using an empty one -> Message is self explanatory (phrased differently: This is the first time you use root's crontab or you emptied the previous one).

No modification made -> Also self explanatory (you did not change anything).

I already told you the difference between /etc/cronatb and crontab -e. crontab -e does not use /etc/crontab it use its own crontab.

If that doesn't suffice, please elaborate.