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CRONTAB(P)		   POSIX Programmer's Manual		    CRONTAB(P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the	 corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
       crontab - schedule periodic background work

SYNOPSIS
       crontab [file]

       crontab [ -e | -l | -r ]

DESCRIPTION
       The crontab utility shall create, replace, or  edit  a  user's  crontab
       entry;  a  crontab  entry  is a list of commands and the times at which
       they shall be executed. The new crontab entry can be input by  specify‐
       ing  file or input from standard input if no file operand is specified,
       or by using an editor, if -e is specified.

       Upon execution of a command from a crontab  entry,  the	implementation
       shall  supply  a	 default  environment, defining at least the following
       environment variables:

       HOME   A pathname of the user's home directory.

       LOGNAME
	      The user's login name.

       PATH   A string representing a search path guaranteed to	 find  all  of
	      the standard utilities.

       SHELL  A	 pathname  of the command interpreter. When crontab is invoked
	      as specified by this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  the	 value
	      shall be a pathname for sh.

       The  values  of these variables when crontab is invoked as specified by
       this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 shall not affect the default values
       provided when the scheduled command is run.

       If  standard  output  and standard error are not redirected by commands
       executed from the crontab entry, any generated output or	 errors	 shall
       be mailed, via an implementation-defined method, to the user.

       Users  shall  be	 permitted to use crontab if their names appear in the
       file /usr/lib/cron/cron.allow. If that file does not  exist,  the  file
       /usr/lib/cron/cron.deny	shall be checked to determine whether the user
       shall be denied access to crontab.  If  neither	file  exists,  only  a
       process	with  appropriate privileges shall be allowed to submit a job.
       If only cron.deny exists and is empty, global usage shall be permitted.
       The  cron.allow	and cron.deny files shall consist of one user name per
       line.

OPTIONS
       The crontab utility shall conform to the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       -e     Edit  a  copy of the invoking user's crontab entry, or create an
	      empty entry to edit if the crontab entry does  not  exist.  When
	      editing  is complete, the entry shall be installed as the user's
	      crontab entry.

       -l     (The letter ell.) List the invoking user's crontab entry.

       -r     Remove the invoking user's crontab entry.

OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:

       file   The pathname of a file that contains specifications, in the for‐
	      mat defined in the INPUT FILES section, for crontab entries.

STDIN
       See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES
       In  the	POSIX  locale,	the  user  or  application shall ensure that a
       crontab entry is a text file consisting of lines of  six	 fields	 each.
       The  fields shall be separated by <blank>s. The first five fields shall
       be integer patterns that specify the following:

	1. Minute [0,59]

	2. Hour [0,23]

	3. Day of the month [1,31]

	4. Month of the year [1,12]

	5. Day of the week ([0,6] with 0=Sunday)

       Each of these patterns can be either an	asterisk  (meaning  all	 valid
       values), an element, or a list of elements separated by commas. An ele‐
       ment shall be either a number or two  numbers  separated	 by  a	hyphen
       (meaning	 an inclusive range). The specification of days can be made by
       two fields (day of the month and day of the week).  If  month,  day  of
       month,  and  day of week are all asterisks, every day shall be matched.
       If either the month or day of month is specified as an element or list,
       but  the	 day of week is an asterisk, the month and day of month fields
       shall specify the days that match. If both month and day of  month  are
       specified  as  an asterisk, but day of week is an element or list, then
       only the specified days of the week match. Finally, if either the month
       or day of month is specified as an element or list, and the day of week
       is also specified as an element or list, then any day  matching	either
       the month and day of month, or the day of week, shall be matched.

       The  sixth field of a line in a crontab entry is a string that shall be
       executed by sh at the specified times. A percent sign character in this
       field  shall  be translated to a <newline>. Any character preceded by a
       backslash (including the '%' ) shall cause that character to be treated
       literally. Only the first line (up to a '%' or end-of-line) of the com‐
       mand field shall be executed by	the  command  interpreter.  The	 other
       lines shall be made available to the command as standard input.

       Blank lines and those whose first non- <blank> is '#' shall be ignored.

       The  text  files	 /usr/lib/cron/cron.allow  and /usr/lib/cron/cron.deny
       shall contain zero or more user names, one per line, of users who  are,
       respectively, authorized or denied access to the service underlying the
       crontab utility.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment  variables  shall  affect  the	 execution  of
       crontab:

       EDITOR Determine	 the editor to be invoked when the -e option is speci‐
	      fied.  The default editor shall be vi.

       LANG   Provide a default value for the  internationalization  variables
	      that  are	 unset	or  null.  (See the Base Definitions volume of
	      IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section  8.2,  Internationalization	 Vari‐
	      ables  for the precedence of internationalization variables used
	      to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values  of  all
	      the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE
	      Determine	 the  locale  for  the	interpretation of sequences of
	      bytes of text data as characters (for  example,  single-byte  as
	      opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).

       LC_MESSAGES
	      Determine	 the  locale  that should be used to affect the format
	      and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
	      Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
	      LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       If  the	-l  option is specified, the crontab entry shall be written to
       the standard output.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

	0     Successful completion.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       The user's crontab entry is not submitted, removed, edited, or listed.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       The format of the crontab entry shown here is guaranteed only  for  the
       POSIX  locale.  Other cultures may be supported with substantially dif‐
       ferent interfaces, although implementations are encouraged  to  provide
       comparable levels of functionality.

       The default settings of the HOME , LOGNAME , PATH , and SHELL variables
       that are given to the scheduled job are not affected by the settings of
       those  variables when crontab is run; as stated, they are defaults. The
       text   about   "invoked	 as    specified    by	  this	  volume    of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001"  means that the implementation may provide exten‐
       sions that allow these variables to be affected at  runtime,  but  that
       the  user has to take explicit action in order to access the extension,
       such as give a new option flag or modify	 the  format  of  the  crontab
       entry.

       A typical user error is to type only crontab; this causes the system to
       wait for the new crontab entry on standard input.   If  end-of-file  is
       typed  (generally  <control>-D),	 the  crontab  entry is replaced by an
       empty file. In this case, the user should type the interrupt character,
       which prevents the crontab entry from being replaced.

EXAMPLES
	1. Clean up core files every weekday morning at 3:15 am:

	   15 3 * * 1-5 find $HOME -name core 2>/dev/null | xargs rm -f

	2. Mail a birthday greeting:

	   0 12 14 2 * mailx john%Happy Birthday!%Time for lunch.

	3. As an example of specifying the two types of days:

	   0 0 1,15 * 1

       would  run  a command on the first and fifteenth of each month, as well
       as on every Monday. To specify days by only one field, the other	 field
       should be set to '*' ; for example:

	      0 0 * * 1

       would run a command only on Mondays.

RATIONALE
       All  references	to  a cron daemon and to cron files have been omitted.
       Although historical implementations have used this  arrangement,	 there
       is no reason to limit future implementations.

       This description of crontab is designed to support only users with nor‐
       mal privileges. The format of the  input	 is  based  on	the  System  V
       crontab;	 however,  there is no requirement here that the actual system
       database used by the cron daemon (or a similar mechanism) use this for‐
       mat  internally.	 For  example,	systems derived from BSD are likely to
       have an additional field appended that indicates the user  identity  to
       be used when the job is submitted.

       The -e option was adopted from the SVID as a user convenience, although
       it does not exist in all historical implementations.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       at

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),	The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications  Issue  6,  Copyright  (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open  Group.  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the	referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2003			    CRONTAB(P)
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