shutting down CRON for specific user.

[Jim Tropiano_1]

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.

[Pete Randall]

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


Pete

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

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...

[Jim Tropiano_1]

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.

[Steven E. Protter]

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

[James R. Ferguson]

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...

[Jim Tropiano_1]

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 .