On Sun, 8 Dec 2024, Greg Wooledge wrote:
What line did you add to /etc/crontab? Please paste it here. Note that /etc/crontab uses a different format than personal crontab files (there's an extra username field).
I added lines to /etc/crontab such as # Watch over the NUT heartbeat at 0803 hr every day 3 8 * * * nut /usr/local/bin/heartbeat-watcher.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 # Lets have Biff bark the hours 0,1 0,12 * * * rprice /mnt/home/rprice/bark/bark.sh 12 > /dev/null 2>&1 ... 0,1 11,23 * * * rprice /mnt/home/rprice/bark/bark.sh 11 > /dev/null 2>&1
That command edits your personal crontab file, which has the shorter lines (no username field is needed, because all the jobs are run as you).
I added a username, but crontab -e didn't complain.
I'm still suspecting you used the wrong format in one or both files, so it would be helpful to know what line you added to each of them,
The personal lines I specified using crontab -e were also as shown above.
and why you were using /etc/crontab (system-wide) if your job was going to run as you. I'm not saying it's *wrong* to have all your system-wide and personal jobs in one place, but it's non-traditional.
It was clearly a misunderstanding on my part to have additional lines in /etc/crontab. I have removed them and returned /etc/crontab to what it was when Debian 11 was installed. All my personal lines are now specified by "crontab -e" and can be seen in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/rprice
Roger
