More diagnostics. when crontab line is "* * * 7 * echo [`whoami`]" running the job prints "[backup]" if line == "echo `mt -f /dev/nst0 status`" output == "mt: /dev/nst0: Permission denied" command line: backup@noc:~$ echo [`whoami`] [backup] backup@noc:~$ echo `mt -f /dev/nst0 status` mt: /dev/nst0: Device or resource busy -- Glenn English ghe@slsware.com