From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Jan 3 17:27:15 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id RAA05545 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Sun, 3 Jan 1999 17:27:15 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from apollo.backplane.com (apollo.backplane.com [209.157.86.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA05540 for ; Sun, 3 Jan 1999 17:27:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dillon@apollo.backplane.com) Received: (from dillon@localhost) by apollo.backplane.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) id RAA55023; Sun, 3 Jan 1999 17:26:48 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dillon) Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1999 17:26:48 -0800 (PST) From: Matthew Dillon Message-Id: <199901040126.RAA55023@apollo.backplane.com> To: "Stephen J. Roznowski" Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why is root's crontab different? Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG :In tracking down the cause of my "/var/log/maillog.0: No such file :or directory" errors from newsyslog, I "discovered" that I had both :a root crontab entry and /etc/crontab. Both of these were running :newsyslog at the same time and they were conflicting with each :other. : :My question is why is root's crontab entry treated differently (i.e. :a file in /etc) as opposed to just having a crontab (in /var/cron/tabs)? : :Thanks, :-SR The original cron program had *only* /etc/crontab. The support for it is a backwards compatibility throwback that we really don't need any more. I don't use it on any of my boxes, even for root. It still hangs around the base install because it's no-fart. i.e. nobody wants to waste time farting around with the install to change it. I suppose /etc/crontab might have some limited usefullness running cron jobs for special users that do not have real shells installed for their password entry, but I have never in my life come across a situation like that. -Matt :To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org :with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message : Matthew Dillon Engineering, HiWay Technologies, Inc. & BEST Internet Communications & God knows what else. (Please include original email in any response) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message