Unable to edit or list crontab

[FHTR]

Hi

I have a system running hp-ux 11.23, which I am not able to edit or list crontab, but previously this was possible.

cchost0[347]/var/adm/cron #/sbin/init.d/cron stop
cron stopped
cchost0[349]/var/adm/cron #/sbin/init.d/cron start
cron started
cchost0[350]/var/adm/cron #crontab -l
cchost0[351]/var/adm/cron #crontab -e
cchost0[352]/var/adm/cron #ps -ef | grep cron
    root  4287  4233  0 09:51:04 pts/4     0:00 grep cron
    root  4282     1  0 09:50:35 ?         0:00 /usr/sbin/cron

I have check the logs,:

tail OLDlog
>  bscsprod 4192 c Fri Oct  2 09:30:00 SAST 2020
>  CMD: /sbin/rc3.d/VPN_ping > /dev/nulll 2 >&1
>  root 4193 c Fri Oct  2 09:30:00 SAST 2020
<  pprov 4190 c Fri Oct  2 09:30:00 SAST 2020 rc=1
<  bscsprod 4192 c Fri Oct  2 09:30:00 SAST 2020 rc=1
<  root 4189 c Fri Oct  2 09:30:00 SAST 2020
<  root 4193 c Fri Oct  2 09:30:28 SAST 2020 rc=2
>  CMD: /sbin/rc3.d/VPN_ping > /dev/nulll 2 >&1
>  root 4261 c Fri Oct  2 09:45:00 SAST 2020
<  root 4261 c Fri Oct  2 09:45:28 SAST 2020 rc=2

and:

tail log
! *** cron started ***   pid = 4282 Fri Oct  2 09:50:35 SAST 2020
>  CMD: /sbin/rc3.d/VPN_ping > /dev/nulll 2 >&1
>  root 4308 c Fri Oct  2 10:00:00 SAST 2020
>  CMD: /fs1/bscsprod/BSCS_iX/WORK/PPROV/EMM/msisdn.sh > /fs1/bscsprod/BSCS_iX/WORK/PPROV/EMM/cronlog
>  pprov 4309 c Fri Oct  2 10:00:00 SAST 2020
>  CMD: /fs1/bscsprod/BSCS_iX/WORK/backup/monitor_dbdump.sh > /fs1/bscsprod/BSCS_iX/WORK/backup/bdf.log 2>&1
>  bscsprod 4311 c Fri Oct  2 10:00:00 SAST 2020
<  pprov 4309 c Fri Oct  2 10:00:00 SAST 2020 rc=1
<  bscsprod 4311 c Fri Oct  2 10:00:00 SAST 2020 rc=1

other files:

tail cron.allow
root
adm
uucp
pprov
ccuser

#more queuedefs
a.4j1n
b.2j2n90w
queuedefs: END

Please what possible could be wrong....

[Bill Hassell]

What does this command show?

# ls -l /var/spool/cron/crontabs

[FHTR]

Hi

Thanks for the reply, the output of that command is:

ls -l /var/spool/cron/crontabs
total 64
-r--------   1 root       107            228 Sep  9  2009 bscsprod
-r--------   1 root       oinstall       732 Nov  1  2009 ora10g
-r--------   1 root       users          242 Jan 15  2008 pprov
-r--------   1 root       sys            767 Nov  4  2010 root

[Patrick Wallek]

What does your 'crontab' command look like?

This is from an 11.11 system, but the permissions and ownership should be similar though the file size / date will differ.

root@prod1:/
# which crontab
/usr/bin/crontab
root@prod1:/
# ll /usr/bin/crontab
-r-sr-xr-x 1 root bin 28672 Aug 24 2006 /usr/bin/crontab

[Bill Hassell]

Try restarting cron:

# /sbin/init.d/cron stop
# /sbin/init.d/cron start

Then try the cron -l command again.

[FHTR]

The output of the commands:

#which crontab
/usr/bin/crontab

#ll /usr/bin/crontab
-r-sr-xr-x   1 root       bin              0 Dec 22  2009 /usr/bin/crontab

[FHTR]

I did try stop and start the cron job before, but nothing happens:

/sbin/init.d/cron stop
cron stopped
cchost0[133]/ #/sbin/init.d/cron start
cron started
cchost0[134]/ #crontab -l
cchost0[135]/ #date
Tue Oct  6 08:35:18 SAST 2020
cchost0[136]/ #

[Patrick Wallek]

Well, here's your problem.

#ll /usr/bin/crontab
-r-sr-xr-x   1 root       bin              0 Dec 22  2009 /usr/bin/crontab

Somehow your crontab executable has been wiped out.  It is zero bytes.  That will definitely not work.

You need to restore it from a backup.