> > /etc/crontab should really only be used for system maintenance tasks... > > Why is that?
> I have up to 12 lines in one machine's /etc/crontab... they're doing a > variety of things from log processing to doing a daily backup to more > log processing, which *could* be done as non-root I suppose. > Comments? You are violating the cardinal rule of safety and security: don't do things as root unless you have to (that's what you tell all the Linux newbies, don't you?). Create another user account if necessary. For those things which need to run as root, su to root and run crontab -e. This is still safer than using /etc/crontab (you'll do less damage messing up root's personal crontab than messing up the system crontab). This also saves you from having to take care of the different syntax for /etc/crontab. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
