Description of problem: crond doesn't fork any commands after entering entries that can't be parsed. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): vixie-cron-3.0.1-76_EL3 How reproducible: Creating crontab file in which there are entries that can't be parsed. Steps to Reproduce: 1. create the file named "/etc/cron.d/clean_tmp" 2. input the entry like following in the file. 0 */0,6,12,18 * * * root find /usr/local/hde/lc/backup/tmp/session -name ".[0- 9a-f]*" -a -cmin +360 -exec rm -rf "{}" \; >/dev/null 2>&1 Actual results: Any commands in crontab are not executed ever. Expected results: same above. Additional info: After changing the entry following, crond has got started again. 0 0,6,12,18 * * * root find /usr/local/hde/lc/backup/tmp/session -name ".[0-9a- f]*" -a -cmin +360 -exec rm -rf "{}" \; >/dev/null 2>&1
Created attachment 116793 [details] crontab file
I think cron was confused by the "0 */0..." entry, which is pretty meaningless: "every hour, skipping 0 hours" - a synonym for "0 0..." . What was your intention with the "0 */0" entry ? Yes, cron needs improvement in reporting crontab parse errors - currently, it simply ignores them, as have all previous versions of cron. I am currently working on an enhanced version of cron that will report cron syntax errors, a feature that has been requested before: bug 137962 . *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 137962 ***