guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (03/01/90)
> > I have a question about the safest way to update the cron program's > crontab file .......... > .... Is there a special procedure to correctly update the crontab file? To which various people have replied with answers either about the V7/BSD "cron" or the S5R2-and-later "cron". The answers about the V7/BSD "cron" are, as I remember, correct for systems running that flavor of "cron" - one "crontab" file for the system, usuall in "/usr/lib/crontab". The answers about the S5R2-and-later "cron" (i.e., "use the 'crontab' command") are correct for systems running that flavor of "cron" (one "crontab" file per user). The answers about the V7/BSD "cron" are, of course, incorrect for systems running the S5R2-or-later "cron", and vice versa. Does the fact that he refers to "*the* cron program's crontab file" - "the" being present, and "file" being singular - mean that he's running a system with the V7/BSD "cron"? If so, the answers about using the "crontab" command are wrong.... Note to askers of questions: please note what flavor of UNIX, and which version of that flavor, you're running; the answer to your question may depend on the version of UNIX you're running. Note to answerers of questions: not all flavors of UNIX are alike. The person asking a question may have a version unlike yours.