Women in Technology

Article:		Learning the Terminal in Jaguar, Part 1
Subject:		What about "crontab -e"?
Date:		2002-12-10 12:01:42
From:		anonymous2
I have always used "crontab -e" to edit my crontab. Shouldn't this be used instead of directly editing the files (and manually maintaining backups)?

Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

• What about "crontab -e"?
  2002-12-10 16:44:52  Chris Stone | [View]
  
  
  You are correct in using crontab -e to edit *your* user crontab (those in /var/cron/tabs). However, the crontab command is not for the *system* crontab, (/etc/crontab), which is edited directly.
  
  --Chris
• What about "crontab -e"?
  2002-12-14 23:46:21  dillera [View]
  
  
  HI:
  
  try:
  
  $ sudo crontab -e
  
  this will edit the system crontab in one step.
  
  -andy
• What about "crontab -e"?
  2002-12-20 10:32:21  Chris Stone | [View]
  
  
  Actually, that is not correct.
  
  sudo crontab -e will edit the *root* crontab -- the user crontab for the user *root*, which is /private/var/cron/tabs/root.
  
  This is a different file than the *system* crontab, which is /etc/crontab. It is this system crontab which holds the schedule for the regular maintenance jobs, not the root crontab.