No crontab command?
# sudo yum install crontabs
<snip>Package crontabs-1.10-8.noarch already installed and latest version
Nothing to do</snip>
So I try to run crontab (as root):
# crontab
-bash: crontab: command not found
So I look for it, and indeed it's nowhere:
# find / -iname *cron*
/usr/share/vim/vim70/syntax/crontab.vim
/var/lib/php/session/sess_2ubvqg7cront79e93j8kp4cjs0
/var/log/cron
/etc/cron.daily
/etc/cron.daily/makewhatis.cron
/etc/crontab
/etc/cron.hourly
/etc/cron.weekly
/etc/cron.weekly/makewhatis.cron
/etc/cron.monthly
The files in /etc are not the binary, and best not edited manually, though I can do that, too. I went to library.linode.com to see if there's something special with crontab on Linode's servers, or specifically their centos server, but the article Linode has on crontab assumes it's already there. Indeed, it says that it doesn't matter what platform you are on because it works the same in all of them (which is my experience as well), but apparently they missed something with the latest CentOS… or did I miss something?
Brandon
6 Replies
@brasto:
Every time I've ever installed Linux, including several distributions, I've always been able to run crontab commands. I'm on the latest CentOS linode offers, and I can't run crontab, even though yum says it's installed:
# sudo yum install crontabs <snip>Package crontabs-1.10-8.noarch already installed and latest version Nothing to do</snip>
I don't believe the crontabs package includes any binaries, but just system configuration files for a cron daemon.
Perhaps the Linode CentOS build doesn't actually include cron (one less daemon) by default. Check for vixie-cron (a common version). I suspect installing a cron daemon would include crontab along with the actual daemon
– David
-James
@db3l:
I don't believe the crontabs package includes any binaries, but just system configuration files for a cron daemon.
Perhaps the Linode CentOS build doesn't actually include cron (one less daemon) by default. Check for vixie-cron (a common version). I suspect installing a cron daemon would include crontab along with the actual daemon
– David
Thank you David. I should have mentioned I ran a yum search. Here's the output, and I don't see either a daemon or a vixie-cron in the results:
# yum search cron
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities
================================ Matched: cron =================================
vixie-cron.x86_64 : The Vixie cron daemon for executing specified programs at
: set times.
kdeadmin.x86_64 : Administrative tools for KDE.
anacron.x86_64 : A cron-like program that can run jobs lost during downtime.
at.x86_64 : Job spooling tools.
autotrust.x86_64 : DNSKEY trust anchor update utility that uses RFC-5011
chealpix.i386 : HEALPix C Bindings Library
chealpix.x86_64 : HEALPix C Bindings Library
chealpix-devel.i386 : HEALPix C Bindings Library development files
chealpix-devel.x86_64 : HEALPix C Bindings Library development files
clamav-data.x86_64 : Virus signature data for the Clam Antivirus scanner
clamav-update.x86_64 : Auto-updater for the Clam Antivirus scanner data-files
cronolog.x86_64 : Web log rotation program for Apache
crontabs.noarch : Root crontab files used to schedule the execution of programs.
dmraid-events-logwatch.x86_64 : dmraid logwatch-based email reporting
dwatch.x86_64 : A program that watches over other programs
ggz-client-libs.i386 : Client libraries for GGZ gaming zone
ggz-client-libs.x86_64 : Client libraries for GGZ gaming zone
hatools.x86_64 : Improved shell scripting in High Availability environment
healpix.x86_64 : Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelization of a sphere
healpix-c++.x86_64 : Healpix C++ binaries and libraries
healpix-c++-devel.i386 : Healpix C++ headers
healpix-c++-devel.x86_64 : Healpix C++ headers
incron.x86_64 : Inotify cron system
libggz.i386 : Library for client-server games
libggz.x86_64 : Library for client-server games
logrotate.x86_64 : Rotates, compresses, removes and mails system log files.
mdsplib.i386 : METAR Decoder Software Package Library
mdsplib.x86_64 : METAR Decoder Software Package Library
mdsplib-devel.i386 : Development files for the METAR Decoder Software Package
: Library
mdsplib-devel.x86_64 : Development files for the METAR Decoder Software Package
: Library
perl-Schedule-Cron-Events.noarch : Take a line from a crontab and find out when
: events will occur
perl-Set-Crontab.noarch : Expand crontab(5)-style integer lists
puppet.noarch : A network tool for managing many disparate systems
rdiff-backup.x86_64 : Convenient and transparent local/remote incremental
: mirror/backup
rrdtool.i386 : Round Robin Database Tool to store and display time-series data
rrdtool.x86_64 : Round Robin Database Tool to store and display time-series data
rrdtool-devel.i386 : RRDtool libraries and header files
rrdtool-devel.x86_64 : RRDtool libraries and header files
rrdtool-doc.x86_64 : RRDtool documentation
rss2email.noarch : Deliver news from RSS feeds to your smtp server as text or
: html mail
ruby-irb.x86_64 : The Interactive Ruby.
sphinx.x86_64 : Free open-source SQL full-text search engine
yum-cron.noarch : Files needed to run yum updates as a cron job
yum-updateonboot.noarch : Run yum update on system boot
zikula-module-MultiHook.noarch : MultiHook is a simple replacement for the old
: AutoLinks module for Zikula
@Alucard:
vixie-cron is the first result
Good find Alucard, I didn't see it because the first two are the only ones not in alphabetical order with the rest. I automatically looked near the bottom. Perhaps I should have piped it into sort… I'll install it and see if it resolves the issue.