From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Feb 21 14: 9:46 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from nameserver.austclear.com.au (nameserver.austclear.com.au [192.83.119.132]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9D41237B491 for ; Wed, 21 Feb 2001 14:09:40 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from ahl@austclear.com.au) Received: from tungsten.austclear.com.au (tungsten.austclear.com.au [192.168.70.1]) by nameserver.austclear.com.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA99536; Thu, 22 Feb 2001 09:09:21 +1100 (EST) Received: from tungsten (tungsten [192.168.70.1]) by tungsten.austclear.com.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA26055; Thu, 22 Feb 2001 09:09:21 +1100 (EST) Message-Id: <200102212209.JAA26055@tungsten.austclear.com.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: Lowell Gilbert Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, genisis@istar.ca Subject: Re: cron mail In-Reply-To: Message from Lowell Gilbert of "21 Feb 2001 16:49:09 CDT." <44itm3emga.fsf@lowellg.ne.mediaone.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 09:09:21 +1100 From: Tony Landells Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > genisis@istar.ca (Dru) writes: > > You appear to be confused about the difference between "crontab crontab" > and "crontab /etc/crontab". /etc/crontab is not, as you claimed, a > "crontab that you've created with an editor." It's a very different > file, with a slightly different format, and completely inappropriate > for installation with the crontab command. I repeat that I am *sure* > that Greg Lehey never advised typing "crontab /etc/crontab". [I don't > have that edition to check, but I'm still completely confident.] I think that's the crux of the whole issue. Greg Lehey's example is, as you suggest, "crontab crontab" to install a file called "crontab". However, I can imagine someone not understanding the distinction and thinking "I've made a change to /etc/crontab, I'd better re-install it by typing 'crontab /etc/crontab', per the example in Greg's book." I think it's been made clear that /etc/crontab is a different format to the crontab files used by the crontab command. Although "The Complete FreeBSD" (2nd Edition) does say that the "user" field is unique to /etc/crontab, and you shouldn't include it in your own crontab files, I don't think it's adequately clear that you DON'T use the crontab command to install /etc/crontab. I haven't checked the Errata to see whether this is something Greg has clarified... Cheers, Tony -- Tony Landells Senior Network Engineer Ph: +61 3 9677 9319 Australian Clearing Services Pty Ltd Fax: +61 3 9677 9355 Level 4, Rialto North Tower 525 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message