topic Re: shutting down CRON for specific user. in Operating System - Linux

shutting down CRON for specific user.

Jim Tropiano_1 — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 13:54:59 GMT

We have a cron for root and and cron for oracle and a cron for selected users. How can I just shutdown the cron for oracle while leaving the rest up and how would I start it back up manually.

I know that I could shutdown all the crons by run the cron script in /sbin/init.d and giving the stop or start parameter.

Re: shutting down CRON for specific user.

Pete Randall — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:01:35 GMT

Make an entry in /usr/lib/cron/cron.deny.

Pete

Re: shutting down CRON for specific user.

James R. Ferguson — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:04:00 GMT

Hi Jim:

To shutdown 'cron' for a specific user,
simply remove the user's crontab:

# su - oracle
# crontab -l > ${HOME}oracle_crontab
# crontab -r

To restart (later):

# su - oracle
# crontab ${HOME}oracle_crontab

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: shutting down CRON for specific user.

Jim Tropiano_1 — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:05:46 GMT

Thank up for that little bit of information. That is what I was somewhat thinking of doing but wanted to see if there was and easier way. I will test that out.

Thanks again.

Re: shutting down CRON for specific user.

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:10:23 GMT

Jim,

What you have been given is the standard and easy way.

By default cron should be denied for all users and permitted for those users that need it.

SEP

Re: shutting down CRON for specific user.

James R. Ferguson — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:47:40 GMT

Hi (again) Jim:

Adding your user's login to the 'cron.deny' file isn't going to disable crontasks that are otherwise allowed and already in place.

Quoting from the 'crontab' manpages:

/* Begin_Quote */

You can execute crontab if your name appears in the file /var/adm/cron/cron.allow. If that file does not exist, you can use crontab if your name does not appear in the file /var/adm/cron/cron.deny. If only cron.deny exists and is empty, all users can use crontab. If neither file exists, only the root user can use crontab.

/* End_Quote */

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: shutting down CRON for specific user.

Jim Tropiano_1 — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:49:47 GMT

I just did not want to change the crontab.allow or crontab.deny files. I n case someone for got to modifiy the file when done. I am just going to remove the crontab and leave it empty and then when the process is complete I am going to put the crontab back .