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crontab man page

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User Commands                                          crontab(1)



NAME
     crontab - user crontab file

SYNOPSIS
     crontab [filename]

     crontab -e [username]

     crontab -l [username]

     crontab -r [username]

DESCRIPTION
     The crontab utility manages a user's access with  cron  (see
     cron(1M))  by copying, creating, listing, and removing cron-
     tab files. If invoked without options,  crontab  copies  the
     specified  file,  or the standard input if no file is speci-
     fied, into a directory that holds all users' crontabs.

     If crontab is invoked  with  filename,  this  overwrites  an
     existing crontab entry for the user that invokes it.

  crontab Access Control
     Users: Access to crontab is allowed:

       o  if the user's name appears in /etc/cron.d/cron.allow.

       o  if /etc/cron.d/cron.allow does not exist and the user's
          name is not in /etc/cron.d/cron.deny.


     Users: Access to crontab is denied:

       o  if /etc/cron.d/cron.allow exists and the user's name is
          not in it.

       o  if /etc/cron.d/cron.allow does  not  exist  and  user's
          name is in /etc/cron.d/cron.deny.

       o  if  neither  file  exists,  only  a   user   with   the
          solaris.jobs.user  authorization is allowed to submit a
          job.

       o  if BSM audit  is  enabled,  the  user's  shell  is  not
          audited and the user is not the crontab owner. This can
          occur if the user logs in by way of a program, such  as
          some  versions of SSH, which does not set audit parame-
          ters.


     The rules for allow and deny  apply  to  root  only  if  the
     allow/deny files exist.



SunOS 5.10          Last change: 10 Nov 2005                    1






User Commands                                          crontab(1)



     The allow/deny files consist of one user name per line.

  crontab Entry Format
     A crontab file consists of lines of  six  fields  each.  The
     fields  are  separated by spaces or tabs. The first five are
     integer patterns that specify the following:

     minute (0-59),
     hour (0-23),
     day of the month (1-31),
     month of the year (1-12),
     day of the week (0-6 with 0=Sunday).

     Each of these patterns can be either  an  asterisk  (meaning
     all legal values) or a list of elements separated by commas.
     An element is either a number or two numbers separated by  a
     minus sign (meaning an inclusive range). Time specified here
     is interpreted in the timezone of the cron(1M) daemon, which
     is  set system-wide in /etc/default/init. Entries do not use
     the invoking user's timezone. The specification of days  can
     be  made  by  two  fields  (day  of the month and day of the
     week). Both are adhered to if specified as a  list  of  ele-
     ments. See EXAMPLES.

     The sixth field of a line in a crontab file is a string that
     is  executed  by the shell at the specified times. A percent
     character in this field (unless escaped by \) is  translated
     to a NEWLINE character.

     Only the first line (up to a `%' or end of line) of the com-
     mand  field  is  executed by the shell. Other lines are made
     available to the command as standard input. Any  blank  line
     or line beginning with a `#' is a comment and is ignored.

     The shell is invoked from your $HOME directory with an  arg0
     of sh. Users who desire to have their .profile executed must
     explicitly do so  in  the  crontab  file.  cron  supplies  a
     default environment for every shell, defining HOME, LOGNAME,
     SHELL(=/bin/sh), TZ, and PATH. The  default  PATH  for  user
     cron  jobs  is  /usr/bin;  while  root  cron jobs default to
     /usr/sbin:/usr/bin.  The  default  PATH  can   be   set   in
     /etc/default/cron (see cron(1M)).

     If you do not redirect  the  standard  output  and  standard
     error  of  your commands, any generated output or errors are
     mailed to you.

  Setting cron Jobs Across Timezones
     The  timezone  of  the  cron  daemon  sets  the  system-wide
     timezone  for  cron  entries.  This,  in  turn, is by set by
     default system-wide using /etc/default/init.




SunOS 5.10          Last change: 10 Nov 2005                    2






User Commands                                          crontab(1)



     If some form of daylight savings or summer/winter time is in
     effect,  then  jobs  scheduled  during the switchover period
     could be executed once, twice, or not at all.

OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     -e       Edits a copy of the current user's crontab file, or
              creates  an  empty file to edit if crontab does not
              exist.  When  editing  is  complete,  the  file  is
              installed as the user's crontab file. If a username
              is given, the  specified  user's  crontab  file  is
              edited,  rather  than  the  current  user's crontab
              file; this can only be done  by  a  user  with  the
              solaris.jobs.admin  authorization.  The environment
              variable EDITOR determines which editor is  invoked
              with  the  -e  option. The default editor is ed(1).
              All crontab jobs should be submitted using crontab.
              Do  not  add jobs by just editing the crontab file,
              because cron is not aware of changes made this way.

              If all lines in the crontab file are  deleted,  the
              old  crontab  file  is restored. The correct way to
              delete all lines is  to  remove  the  crontab  file
              using the -r option.

              If username  is  specified,  the  specified  user's
              crontab  file  is  edited,  rather than the current
              user's crontab file. This can only be done by  root
              or by a user with the solaris.jobs.admin authoriza-
              tion.



     -l       Lists the crontab file for the invoking user.  Only
              a  user  with  the solaris.jobs.admin authorization
              can specify a  username  following  the  -r  or  -l
              options  to  remove or list the crontab file of the
              specified user.



     -r       Removes a user's crontab from  the  crontab  direc-
              tory.



EXAMPLES
     Example 1: Cleaning up Core Files

     This example cleans up core files every weekday  morning  at
     3:15 am:



SunOS 5.10          Last change: 10 Nov 2005                    3






User Commands                                          crontab(1)



     15 3 * * 1-5 find $HOME -name core 2>/dev/null | xargs rm -f

     Example 2: Mailing a Birthday Greeting

     This example mails a birthday greeting:

     0 12 14 2 * mailx john%Happy Birthday!%Time for lunch.

     Example 3: Specifying Days of the Month and Week

     This example runs a command on the first  and  fifteenth  of
     each month, as well as on every Monday:

     0 0 1,15 * 1

     To specify days by only one field, the other field should be
     set to *. For example:

     0 0 * * 1

     would run a command only on Mondays.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
     variables  that  affect  the  execution  of  crontab:  LANG,
     LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

     EDITOR          Determine the editor to be invoked when  the
                     -e option is specified. This is overriden by
                     the  VISUAL  environmental   variable.   The
                     default editor is ed(1).



     VISUAL          Determine the visual editor  to  be  invoked
                     when  the  -e option is specified. If VISUAL
                     is not specified, then the environment vari-
                     able EDITOR is used. If that is not set, the
                     default is ed(1).



EXIT STATUS
     The following exit values are returned:

     0        Successful completion.



     >0       An error occurred.





SunOS 5.10          Last change: 10 Nov 2005                    4






User Commands                                          crontab(1)



FILES
     /etc/cron.d                     main cron directory



     /etc/cron.d/cron.allow          list of allowed users



     /etc/default/cron               contains cron  default  set-
                                     tings



     /etc/cron.d/cron.deny           list of denied users



     /var/cron/log                   accounting information



     /var/spool/cron/crontabs        spool area for crontab



ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Standard                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|


SEE ALSO
     atq(1), atrm(1), auths(1), ed(1),  sh(1),  vi(1),  cron(1M),
     su(1M),   auth_attr(4),   attributes(5),  environ(5),  stan-
     dards(5)

NOTES
     If you inadvertently enter the crontab command with no argu-
     ments,  do  not  attempt  to  get  out  with Control-d. This
     removes all entries in your crontab file. Instead, exit with
     Control-c.

     If an authorized user modifies another user's crontab  file,
     resulting   behavior  can  be  unpredictable.  Instead,  the



SunOS 5.10          Last change: 10 Nov 2005                    5






User Commands                                          crontab(1)



     super-user should first use su(1M) to become  super-user  to
     the  other  user's  login  before  making any changes to the
     crontab file.

     When updating cron, check first for existing crontab entries
     that  can be scheduled close to the time of the update. Such
     entries can be lost if the update  process  completes  after
     the  scheduled  event. This can happen because, when cron is
     notified by crontab to update the internal view of a  user's
     crontab  file, it first removes the user's existing internal
     crontab and any internal scheduled events. Then it reads the
     new  crontab  file  and  rebuilds  the  internal crontab and
     events. This last step takes time, especially with  a  large
     crontab  file,  and  can  complete after an existing crontab
     entry is scheduled to run if it is scheduled  too  close  to
     the  update. To be safe, start a new job at least 60 seconds
     after the current date and time.

     If an authorized  user  other  than  root  modifies  another
     user's   crontab   file,   the  resulting  behavior  can  be
     unpredictable. Instead, the authorized user should first use
     su(1M) to become super-user to the other user's login before
     making any changes to the crontab file.
































SunOS 5.10          Last change: 10 Nov 2005                    6





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