Crontab

[Robert Claeson]

In article <139 at tcnz2.tcnz.co.nz> greg at tcnz.co.nz writes:

>In NCR Tower Unix, release 20100, if I create a crontab format file as
>root then do
>crontab filename
>it wipes what is currently in the crontab for root and replaces it with
>the new entries. It does not append it, as the manual implies. We didn't
>have cron.allow or cron.deny set up, so root was the only one able
>to use cron (all the users are naive users).

The 'crontab' command works in exactly the same way on our Encore Multimax,
running UMAX V 2.2f. However, the manual says that the contents of <filename>
or stdin is *copied* to the crontab directory, thus overwriting what's
currently in the crontab file. It doesn't say a word about appending. From
what I've seen, Encore's manual says exactly the same thing all other System
V-like crontab manuals I've seen, so if the NCR manual differ, I guess that
NCR is in error.

BTW, Encore's manual on crontab also says, in the BUGS section, that if one
enter "crontab" and then changes ones mind, one should NOT terminate the
command with ctrl D, but with the interrupt key. Otherwise, the current
crontab will be replaced with an empty one. This phrase is not in all
manuals, even though the command do work in this way.
-- 
          Robert Claeson      E-mail: rclaeson at erbe.se
	  ERBE DATA AB