crontab refuse simple task which should always work

Question

I have a problem, crontab refuse to coop at all. I read a lot about it, and obviously this always should work:

* * * * env > /tmp/env.output

I wait but no env.output appears. What I find funny though is where crontab -e saves:

/tmp/crontab.i2ZQzh

I hope anyone has an idea, I am tired of starting my backups manually. I tired some backup software too, bt they doesn't work very well, some (small) disadvantages everywhere, I rely on rsync.

Thanks, regards, Dag

Answer 1

You are missing the user part, the correct syntax is:

* * * * * root env > /tmp/env.output

Replace the root with the user you want to run the command with.

Answer 2

I assume from your statement that you were using the command crontab -e. You can verify the crontab entries by looking in '/var/spool/cron/crontabs' for the cron entries. (different nix flavors might have it in slightly different paths)

I would also suggest fully qualifying the path. Instead do: which env

/usr/bin/env

so change the entry to:

* * * * /usr/bin/env > /tmp/env.output

If this does not rectify your issue, you will need to specify which nix flavor you are using.