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Oct  1 13:17:01 tilaprimera /USR/SBIN/CRON[5710]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
A.B.
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hlkstuv_23900
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1 Answers1

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There is a background task scheduler named cron that runs tasks at specific times.

The log entry you see in syslog is the cron daemon running its hourly tasks.

run-parts is a utility to run executables in a directory. Hence 

run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly

runs all executable files in the directory /etc/cron.hourly

Take a look at /etc/crontab. There is an entry

17 *    * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly

telling to run the command in question at 17 minutes past every hour.

For more details see the man-page of run-parts and crontab

Nephente
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  • Is this a legit cron kept by the system ? Can I disable it or something? – hlkstuv_23900 Oct 01 '15 at 15:20
  • @tilaprimera Yes, perfectly legit. Of course you could disable it by commenting out the line in crontab, but I see no reason why. Nothing is run now anyways and chances are some service might need the hourly cronjobs in the future. – Nephente Oct 01 '15 at 15:44