Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
CRONTAB(1)		     General Commands Manual		      CRONTAB(1)

NAME
     crontab -- maintain crontab files for individual users (V3)

SYNOPSIS
     crontab [-u user] file
     crontab [-u user] { -l | -r [-f] | -e }

DESCRIPTION
     The  crontab  utility is the program used to install, deinstall or list the
     tables used to drive the cron(8) daemon in Vixie Cron.  Each user can  have
     their  own  crontab, and though these are files in /var/cron/tabs, they are
     not intended to be edited directly.

     If the allow file exists, then you must be listed therein in  order  to  be
     allowed to use this command.  If the allow file does not exist but the deny
     file  does  exist, then you must not be listed in the deny file in order to
     use this command.	If neither of these  files  exists,  then  depending  on
     site-dependent  configuration  parameters,  only the super user will be al-
     lowed to use this command, or all users will be able to use  this	command.
     The  format  of  these  files  is one username per line, with no leading or
     trailing whitespace.  Lines of other formats will be ignored, and so can be
     used for comments.

     The first form of this command is used to install a new crontab  from  some
     named file or standard input if the pseudo-filename `-' is given.

     The following options are available:

     -u      Specify  the  name  of the user whose crontab is to be tweaked.  If
	     this option is not given, crontab examines  "your"  crontab,  i.e.,
	     the  crontab  of the person executing the command.  Note that su(1)
	     can confuse crontab and that if you are running inside of su(1) you
	     should always use the -u option for safety's sake.

     -l      Display the current crontab on standard output.

     -r      Remove the current crontab.  By default the -r option  prompts  for
	     confirmation,  adding the -f option will attempt to remove the cur-
	     rent crontab without confirmation.

     -e      Edit the current crontab using the editor specified by  the  VISUAL
	     or  EDITOR  environment  variables.  The specified editor must edit
	     the file in place; any editor that unlinks the file  and  recreates
	     it  cannot  be  used.  After you exit from the editor, the modified
	     crontab will be installed automatically.

FILES
     /var/cron/allow  List of users allowed to use crontab
     /var/cron/deny   List of users prohibited from using crontab
     /var/cron/tabs   Directory for personal crontab files

DIAGNOSTICS
     A fairly informative usage message appears if you run it with a bad command
     line.

SEE ALSO
     crontab(5), cron(8)

STANDARDS
     The crontab command conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") with the excep-
     tion that the dangerous variant of calling crontab without a file	name  in
     the  first  form of the command is not allowed by this implementation.  The
     pseudo-filename `-' must be specified to read from standard input.  The new
     command syntax differs from previous versions of Vixie  Cron,  as	well  as
     from the classic SVR3 syntax.

AUTHORS
     Paul Vixie <paul@vix.com>

FreeBSD 15.0			December 20, 2016		      CRONTAB(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=crontab&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+15.0-RELEASE>

home | help