[Courses] [Linux commands]: /etc/crontab, crontab

[Carla Schroder]

On Monday 09 February 2004 11:44 am, Christine Bussman wrote:
> My system is set up by default so that only root can set
> up a cron job  (trying to execute crontab -l as another
> user gives a permission denied error).  Is this a security
> feature, and if so, what are the risks of disabling it? 
> (i.e.
> using chmod on /usr/bin/crontab)

It's supposed to be this way, ordinary users are not supposed to have power 
over other users. Users can create/edit only their own crontabs, only root 
has power over all. You can mess with it, it's your system. :) 

> 
> Another 'quirk' on my system in comparison to what you
> have described is that when I look at the contents of
> /etc/crontab, it begins with
> # remember to give cron a sighup when updating this file
> 
> Is this a function of what particular cron program I am
> using?  (I installed vcron because that was what the
> gentoo install guide suggested rather than the other listed
> options)

Most systems use Vixie cron, I'm not familiar with vcron.

> 
> Another system I use doesn't even have /etc/crontab,
> and running the crontab command returns 'command not
> found'.  I'm just curious how these systems relate to what
> you are describing.

Beats the heck out of me! /etc/crontab and the crontab command have been 
around since like forever. What systems are you running?
-- 
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Carla Schroder
www.tuxcomputing.com
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