crontab -e. Added entries but no /etc/crontab

Question

I did edit /etc/crontab using corntab -e.

I have only one entry

After save contab is not created despite the message.

To be honest I have no idea what to do. I simply want to create a simple daily job.

Second question. How can I change the editor for crontab -e?

crontab -e doesn't edit the system-wide /etc/crontab file - it edits user-specific files in /var/spool/cron/crontabs. Do you see your changes if you type crontab -l? — steeldriver, Apr 09 '21 at 11:39
@codlord without the sudo. Then the preference is set for the current user only. However, that is a different question and does not belong in this question — vanadium, Apr 09 '21 at 11:46
Does this answer your question? Where is the user crontab stored? — pLumo, Apr 09 '21 at 11:47
crontab -l shows me my crontab. Will it run even if I am not logged in? — 0___________, Apr 09 '21 at 11:50
It will run when the computer is switched on, your login is not necessary, but your backupshare *might* not be mounted which would cause the command to fail. — pLumo, Apr 09 '21 at 11:51
It is my local server running gitlab. Need to delete gitlab backup files :)(. One week backup is enough for me — 0___________, Apr 09 '21 at 11:52
@pLumo is there any way to see if my command was executed correctly? — 0___________, Apr 09 '21 at 12:01
check https://askubuntu.com/questions/56683/where-is-the-cron-crontab-log — pLumo, Apr 09 '21 at 12:05
@steeldriver You should probably post your comment as answer. — raj, Apr 09 '21 at 12:28

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 09 '21 at 12:38

The command crontab -e does not edit the system-wide crontab file /etc/crontab, it edits a user-specific file in /var/spool/cron/crontabs . The editor used may be changed using the EDITOR or VISUAL environment variable ex.

EDITOR=/bin/nano crontab -e

You can confirm that you changes have installed by listing the crontab file, using crontab -l .

If you want to place your job in /etc/crontab instead, you would edit it like any other system file ex.

sudoedit /etc/crontab

or (to use the nano editor explicitly)

sudo nano /etc/crontab

but remember that the format of this file is slightly different - in particular, because the file is not user-specific it requires an additional (sixth) field containing the username under which to run each job.

crontab -e. Added entries but no /etc/crontab

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