Re: Problems with Cron

[Sten Anderson <sten@bergsoe.k-net.dk>]

"Pedro Sanchez" <psanchez@nortel.ca> writes:

> 1. New entries that I add to /etc/crontab are ignored. I edited the file
>    and included the line
>    
>    0 8,12,16 * * * /usr/bin/fetchmail -f /home/sanchez/.fetchmailrc
>    
>    However this is never executed. Other than editing this file, is there
>    something else that I have to do?

As you probably can see from the other lines in /etc/crontab, the
system crontab should also include a username - usually root, but in
this case sanchez. The line should thus read:

0 8,12,16 * * * sanchez /usr/bin/fetchmail -f /home/sanchez/.fetchmailrc

> 2. User crontab files are also ignored. I use crontab -e to create the files
>    and I've tried with and without /var/spool/cron/allow (with valid user
>    entries).

I am clueless here, I can only say it should work. Make sure you are
user sanchez, and not root when executing crontab -e. The user crontab 
should not include the username, thus inserting the line:

* * * * * fetchmail

with crontab -e, should check every minute (maybe overkill, but good
for debugging). Try to look at the file /var/log/syslog to see what
cron does when (tip: type "tail -f /var/log/syslog" as root). Try also 
crontab -l (as user sanchez again) to check that the crontab was
really changed. Try also deleting the files /var/spool/cron/allow and
/var/spool/cron/deny 

- Sten Anderson
     


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