Question

3

Crontab -e gives me error messages

rated 0 times [ 3] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 6244 / 1 Year ago, mon, march 27, 2023, 2:54:50

I get a bunch of error messages when I run crontab -e

Here are the error messages.

And here is my crontab file under `/usr/bin/':

# /etc/crontab: system-wide crontab

# Unlike any other crontab you don't have to run the `crontab'

# command to install the new version when you edit this file

# and files in /etc/cron.d. These files also have username fields,

# that none of the other crontabs do.



SHELL=/bin/sh

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin



# m h dom mon dow user  command

17 *    * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly

25 6    * * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )

47 6    * * 7   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )

52 6    1 * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )

30 *    * * *   root    rsync /home/dnaneet/Downloads/*.pdf /home/dnaneet/Downloads/pdfs/

#

I notice that the last task ('rsync') NEVER RUNS! Why is this happening? What did I do wrong?

Running Ubuntu 11.10/Bash.
I have read this... Am I missing a shebang? And I don't know if my anacron jobs run.

Edit 1

In light of Masi's comment, I commented out lines 17 thru 25 of my crontab file with #.

Now when I run sudo crontab -e, all I get is:

/usr/bin/crontab: 11: 17: not found

/usr/bin/crontab: 12: 25: not found



(gedit:4301): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to store changes into `/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but failed: Failed to create

file '/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel.GOHVBW': No such file or
directory

(gedit:4301): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to set the permissions of `/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but failed: No such file or

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percol

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3 Years ago

answered 1 Year ago zzlingots · Accepted Answer

/usr/bin/crontab is the command used for editing your user crontab. Looks like you've overwritten the crontab command with a crontab config file. The file you should be changing is /etc/crontab, not /usr/bin/crontab.

$ file /usr/bin/crontab

/usr/bin/crontab: setgid ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.15, stripped

$ file /etc/crontab

/etc/crontab: ASCII English text

To fix, reinstall the cron package (sudo apt-get --reinstall install cron), then make your changes in /etc/crontab.

Your crontab entry looks quite correct though, just in the wrong file.

EDIT Given that your cronjob only copies files within your own homedir, you might as well have it run as your user. If you want to use the systemwide crontab, put the following line in /etc/crontab

30 *    * * *   dnaneet    rsync /home/dnaneet/Downloads/*.pdf /home/dnaneet/Downloads/pdfs/

Though I'd just use the personal crontab, which you edit using the crontab command. In this case the line should be:

30 * * * * rsync "$HOME/Downloads"/*.pdf "$HOME/Downloads/pdfs/"

After you have done either change, that rsync command should run once an hour, at 00:30, 01:30, 02:30, 03:30, etc...