Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 425041
crontab doesn't execute in the following minute
Last modified: 2010-02-22 08:21:18 EST
Description of problem: When we want to debug some scripts to see if they work well from the cron, we put a schedule that will execute in the following minute. For example, if today is 12:30:30, we enter this in the crontab (via crontab -e) 31 12 * * * echo boo > /tmp/test Meaning that this command should be executed at 12:31:00. It does not work. However, if we put 2 more minute, it works, like this: 32 12 * * * echo boo > /tmp/test Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): vixie-cron-4.1-11.EL3 I don't know if it's a bug or a security feature but we lost a couple of hours before figuring out that it's was the cron the issue, not the script... It seems that the cron first check if there are some modifications and if yes, it reload the config and then execute the commands in the next minute. RH3 update 6 and older are not affected by this. How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. crontab -e 2. Put the following minute (ie: if today is 12:30:30, use 31 12 * * *) Actual results: The crontab doesn't execute something in the next minute. Workaround: Use five asterisks instead of the hour ( * * * * * echo boo > /tmp/test ).
In the latest release of vixie-cron is the job runned with one minute delay. The reason is that the cron sleeps and wake up every minute to reschedule jobs. The only one minute delay instead of two minutes delay could be easily backported.
This issue was fixed in next releases. I suggest update to newer release.