xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/cron/crontab/crontab.1 (revision b18b186e57994f7743b78246b6feea779a3dfb5e)
1.\"/* Copyright 1988,1990,1993 by Paul Vixie
2.\" * All rights reserved
3.\" *
4.\" * Distribute freely, except: don't remove my name from the source or
5.\" * documentation (don't take credit for my work), mark your changes (don't
6.\" * get me blamed for your possible bugs), don't alter or remove this
7.\" * notice.  May be sold if buildable source is provided to buyer.  No
8.\" * warrantee of any kind, express or implied, is included with this
9.\" * software; use at your own risk, responsibility for damages (if any) to
10.\" * anyone resulting from the use of this software rests entirely with the
11.\" * user.
12.\" *
13.\" * Send bug reports, bug fixes, enhancements, requests, flames, etc., and
14.\" * I'll try to keep a version up to date.  I can be reached as follows:
15.\" * Paul Vixie          <paul@vix.com>          uunet!decwrl!vixie!paul
16.\" */
17.\"
18.\" $FreeBSD$
19.\"
20.Dd December 29, 1993
21.Dt CRONTAB 1
22.Os
23.Sh NAME
24.Nm crontab
25.Nd maintain crontab files for individual users (V3)
26.Sh SYNOPSIS
27.Nm
28.Op Fl u Ar user
29.Ar file
30.Nm
31.Op Fl u Ar user
32{
33.Fl l |
34.Fl r |
35.Fl e
36}
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The
39.Nm
40utility is the program used to install, deinstall or list the tables
41used to drive the
42.Xr cron 8
43daemon in Vixie Cron.
44Each user can have their own crontab, and though
45these are files in
46.Pa /var ,
47they are not intended to be edited directly.
48.Pp
49If the
50.Pa allow
51file exists, then you must be listed therein in order to be allowed to use
52this command.
53If the
54.Pa allow
55file does not exist but the
56.Pa deny
57file does exist, then you must
58.Em not
59be listed in the
60.Pa deny
61file in order to use this command.
62If neither of these files exists, then
63depending on site-dependent configuration parameters, only the super user
64will be allowed to use this command, or all users will be able to use this
65command.
66The format of these files is one username per line,
67with no leading or trailing whitespace.
68Lines of other formats will be ignored,
69and so can be used for comments.
70.Pp
71The first form of this command is used to install a new crontab from some
72named file or standard input if the pseudo-filename
73.Sq Fl
74is given.
75.Pp
76The following options are available:
77.Bl -tag -width indent
78.It Fl u
79Specify the name of the user whose crontab is to be
80tweaked.
81If this option is not given,
82.Nm
83examines
84.Dq your
85crontab, i.e., the crontab of the person executing the
86command.
87Note that
88.Xr su 1
89can confuse
90.Nm
91and that if you are running inside of
92.Xr su 1
93you should always use the
94.Fl u
95option for safety's sake.
96.It Fl l
97Display the current crontab on standard output.
98.It Fl r
99Remove the current crontab.
100.It Fl e
101Edit the current crontab using the editor specified by
102the
103.Ev VISUAL
104or
105.Ev EDITOR
106environment variables.
107The specified editor
108.Em must
109edit the file in place;
110any editor that unlinks the file and recreates it cannot be used.
111After you exit
112from the editor, the modified crontab will be installed automatically.
113.El
114.Sh SEE ALSO
115.Xr crontab 5 ,
116.Xr cron 8
117.Sh FILES
118.Bl -tag -width /var/cron/allow -compact
119.It Pa /var/cron/allow
120.It Pa /var/cron/deny
121.El
122.Sh STANDARDS
123The
124.Nm
125command conforms to
126.St -p1003.2
127with the exception that the dangerous variant of calling
128.Nm
129without a file name in the first form of the command is not allowed by
130this implementation.
131The pseudo-filename
132.Sq Fl
133must be specified to read from standard input.
134The new command syntax
135differs from previous versions of Vixie Cron, as well as from the classic
136SVR3 syntax.
137.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
138A fairly informative usage message appears if you run it with a bad command
139line.
140.Sh AUTHORS
141.An Paul Vixie Aq paul@vix.com
142