crontab trouble

[webscripter]

I'm new to linux and I have a friend that has a friend who can't get crontab to work. He want's to know if I know how to install it.

At a glimpse it looks like crontrab installs at the linux installation time. Is this correct? Can it be reinstalled without running the whole system installation?

I'm relating to windows command.com when I think of crontab.



Thanks
Tricia
yorkeylady@earthlink.net

 

[sonofepson]

crontab is part of the cron package. You can verify cron is installed by using the RPM query: rpm -q cron
You are correct cron is usually installed on Linux systems and cron can be installed without redoing the entire system by doing a rpm -ihv cron from the installation media directory where cron is located.
What problem is your friend having? Is he getting a "command not found" error when he types crontab at the command line or is there an error like?: You (username) are not allowed to use this program (crontab)

 

[webscripter]

It's a permission denied error, but he has root access Thanks
Tricia
yorkeylady@earthlink.net

 

[webscripter]

I guess it wasn't installed by default and now he wants to install it manually. Can he do that? And wouldn't he get a different error than permission denied if the command wasn't found? Thanks
Tricia
yorkeylady@earthlink.net

 

[sonofepson]

He can install it, but if he is getting a permission denied then the crontab application exists. He could try adding his username to /var/spool/cron/allow and make sure his user name is not in /var/spool/cron/deny. If any usernames are listed in allow then only those users can have a crontab.
Root however should not have a problem running this, check for the existance of crontab in /usr/bin and make sure it has executable permission for all
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 22640 Mar 23 2002 crontab

 

[webscripter]

That fixed it! Thank you for helping this newbie.

I can't wait to get my Linux cds that I just ordered installed and operational.

Thanks
Tricia
yorkeylady@earthlink.net