Ask Ubuntu General Room

#  /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.

Fabby

@ThomasWeller post a copy of the question here in chat and I'll answer on the site after you ping me here @Fabby

Seth

10:20 PM

@ThomasWeller I don't understand that question. Who is the 'system user'?

Fabby

It is my considered opinion that @ThomasWeller should post a question on the site itself to collect his thoughts and give all the information we need to properly answer his question...

kos

@Fabby There: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/270194/…

user136984

Right, well, goodnight folks! :)

Thomas Weller

Ok, I'll do. I just thought the answer could be a simple "No", which would have been too stupid

Fabby

@ParanoidPanda Pumpkin!

@ThomasWeller No worries! ;-)

Thomas Weller

10:25 PM

Q: Do I need to notify cron about changes in /etc/crontab?

I have edited the system crontab table using sudo nano /etc/crontab according to this question I found online. Will that be sufficient to run the job or do I need to "notify" or "refresh" cron with a command after I edited the file? Also, the website said I should validate the file using crontab...

cron

Fabby

@kos upvoted and starred.

@ThomasWeller reading

kos

@Fabby Thanks. If I'm missing something blatant I'll be buried by the spree of downvotes. :D

Fabby

@ThomasWeller so you did not use crontab -e?

you edited directly?

Thomas Weller

exactly

Fabby

mmmh...

I never tried that as I know you shoudln't do that...

lemme try

Thomas Weller

10:30 PM

I just found that the system crontab has many entries, so I thought it would be a good place to put it there

:-(

A.B.

@Seth have you solved your desktop file problem?

Fabby

@ThomasWeller reading some docs...

seems like you have a (crappy) answer already!

Seth

@A.B. not yet. been too busy with other stuff.

Fabby

@ThomasWeller real answer coming up.

Thomas Weller

I found this: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cron&sektion=8

The cron utility then wakes up every minute, examining all stored
crontabs, checking each command to see if it should be run in the current
minute.

So it should automatically detect the changes

@Fabby: thanks

Fabby

10:37 PM

@ThomasWeller hah!

That's exactly what I just wrote: I concur; it should very probably be safe!

A.B.

What's about sudo systemctl reload crond

Fabby

@ThomasWeller (very probably, just in case you did something else you didn't tell us about like stop the cron daemon or so...)

;-)

Thomas Weller

No, I didn't. It sends emails every night for other jobs. Thanks

Fabby

@ThomasWeller don't thank me!

accept the answer instead

(just edited to add for your bonus question on Oracle) @ThomasWeller

@ThomasWeller thank you! ;-)

A.B.

Upgoated

Fabby

10:42 PM

@ThomasWeller and I'll upvote your question in about an hour as I just ran out of upvotes... ;-)

@A.B. thank you! It is a good question and made me think about stuff (and learn) >:-)

Thomas Weller

No problem. I don't really need reputation :-)

Fabby

@ThomasWeller I'm just a rep whore! ;-)

A.B.

Another one >:)

Fabby

I don't mind helping people but I want some kind of recognition I did a good job! :-) @ThomasWeller

@A.B. :D:D:D

@A.B. when are you starting? (or open tox...)

A.B.

@Fabby he, @ParanoidPanda has accepted your answer askubuntu.com/a/704142/367165

@Fabby starting?

Tox?

Fabby

10:47 PM

@A.B. yeah, am I wrong?

should he instead accept yours?

A.B.

Sorry, understand. @Fabby
Tomorrow. :)

Fabby

(Be warned: yours is more comlicated and the panda likes simple answers...) -)

@A.B. good!

Good night!

Past your bed time anyway!!!

:P :P :P

A.B.

Sure, my answer is the better one :P

Fabby

Next thing you know in 12 minutes you turn into a pumpkin!

A.B.

:D:D:D

Fabby

10:48 PM

@A.B. I can delete mine if you want...

A.B.

That's nonsense :)

I have one uv not than you :)

@Fabby ok 3/3 now

Not "not" I mean "more"

And I hate swipe keyboards

Time to sleep. Cu o/

Nathan Osman

How did Secure Boot get enabled on this machine?!?

I never enabled it.

hbdgaf

Did you completely slick it before you started? My Asus kept falling back to UEFI if I had ANY GPT partitions on ANY disk even though I expressly disabled it.

Fabby

11:04 PM

@A.B. Sorry, I was called away...

kos

@hbdgaf This. Which makes MBR partitions unbootable upon reboot unless by completely shutting down and boot again.

Fabby

@hbdgaf Ah... I was going to say just that... ;-)

user139252