[Techtalk] crontab vs vi

[WolfRyder]

Gabrielle,

Crontab -e calls vi (as default editor) to edit the file. If you don't use 
Crontab your system doesn't know the file has been edited.

If you've been editing by the command  crontab -e, then you've been doing 
it okay all along.

"This from my linux-guru husband".

If you didn't use this, but edited straight from vi and the processes work 
correctly, I wonder how? That would be something worth pursuing!

Carol
P.S. I love this list! I'm just learning about cron jobs and trying to set 
one up and then a question like this pops up!


At 03:54 PM 1/11/02 -0800, gabrielle wrote:
>Hi everyone.
>
>I work with linux and Solaris at work.  Recently I was working on 
>something with one of the sysadmins (I'm not technically part of that 
>group, but they let me manage my own boxes) and had to alter a cron 
>file.  I have always used vi to do this.
>
>Well...the guy who was helping me had a tizzy.  "Never use vi to edit 
>that!  Always use crontab!"  I told him I'd always done it this way and 
>never had any problems, and would he care to shed any light on his 
>reasoning behind that statement, but he couldn't tell me.  He just said 
>"You're not supposed to!"  I have since learned from another sysadmin 
>friend that this may be the case for SCO, but it's certainly not an issue 
>for linux or solaris.  However, he couldn't really tell me why either.
>
>So, not being satisfied with a "because I said so" type of answer, I am 
>turning to the LinuxChix.
>
>Yes, I 'man crontab' and googled, but couldn't find an answer.  Pointers 
>to a FM are much apprectiated.
>
>gabrielle
>
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