If this is a Gentoo box, did you rc-update add the appropriate cron daemon to the default runlevel? ls -alh should show a link inside /etc/runlevels/default. On my system, I'm using vcron, so there's a vcron entry there. You'll see similar problems if this hasn't been added.
Otherwise, it looks right. crontab -e is used to edit the cron table, so you're using the right command to put things in there. crontab -l lists the contents of the current cron table, and crontab -r removes it entirely. -r is a stupid option I'd say, but then cron was thought up by smarter people than me, so whatever... Kev. ----- Original Message ----- From: "J. Rafael S�nchez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 4:29 PM Subject: Re: (clug-talk) Cron not working? > I know this may not solve your problem right away, but here's some of my > bits of knowledge about cron. > > 1. yes the crond daemon must be running > 2. cron, I think, by default uses, or is configured to use syslogd which > creates/rotates cron logs under /var/log/cron, /var/log/cron.1, etc. > 3. by cat /var/log/cron | grep [nameofscript] by reveal something about > the actual cron task running or not if nothing is returned from the grep > commmand. > 4. i usually creat a 'cron-file' with the cron entries on it and then i > run crontab /path/to/'cron-file'. This makes it easy for me to keep > information about the cronjob/cronjobmachine - this is you run lots of > cronjobs on many systems. > 5. man 5 crontab [will give you lots of help with syntax and stuff] > > Keep us posted. > Rafael. > > On Tue, 2003-09-23 at 00:51, Shawn wrote: > > I have setup a few cron jobs, but they are not firing. I know this because > > a) I am not getting any confirmation to the root mailbox (which I thought > > was standard with cron), and b) I've configured my scripts to append a > > datestamp and action completed to a log file. I'm looking for ideas on why > > this isn't working... > > > > I've used "crontab -e" to create my crontab file. The file consists of the > > following: > > > > 30 19 * * * /root/cron/clam_update > > * 01 * * * /root/cron/sysbackup > > 50 19 * * * /root/cron/webstats > > > > each one of these scripts has permissions of 755, and run fine on their own. > > Each one of them will first ping my external firewall IP address to > > establish my internet connection (long standing, but separate issue), run > > their specific tasks, then update the log with a statement like echo "task > > completed" >> /root/cron.log. > > > > I'm suspecting the "crontab -e" bit is not quite right, but don't know > > enough (yet) about cron to be sure. > > > > Any tips or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks. > > > > Shawn > > >
