Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ig!ames!pacbell!hoptoad!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill
From: bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: su uucp in crontabs/root ?
Keywords: root uucp crontab su
Message-ID: <532@bilver.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 89 02:40:42 GMT
References: <75@norsat.UUCP> <2008@egvideo.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion)
Distribution: na
Organization: W. J. Vermillion, Winter Park, FL
Lines: 28

In article <2008@egvideo.UUCP> edhew@egvideo.UUCP (Ed Hew) writes:
>
>>( I get strange behaviour if i just edit the crontab/uucp file without
>>  submitting the changes via crontab {like it gets ignored} )
>
>The last time I read RTFM, it said somethink like:
>"Cron reads the contents of /usr/spool/cron/crontabs _periodically_".
>
>"periodically" appears to mean when cron is restarted, which normally
>happens on bootup, however if you already have used crontab to initially
>install your /usr/spool/cron/crontabs/uucp file, then merely killing off
>cron and restarting at an opportune moment will force cron to read it.
>

It used to be that way (kill the cron and restart it, but your quote from the
manual wasn't quite complete.

"cron exmains the crontabs directory periodically to see if it has changed; if
it has, cron reads it.  Thus it takes only a short while for entries to become
effective"

That was a welcome change.  I forgot to kill the cron on more than one
occasion in the past.  Thought I had typed the file wrong - arg!  (;-) :-)

bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill
                      : bill@bilver.UUCP