cron job memory

[HP-UX Enthusiast]

Hello
I removed a user from a large number of HP-UX 11.00 and 11.11 servers (userdel -r) and I also removed that user's crontab file from under /var/spool/cron/crontabs.

However from the /var/adm/cron/log file it appears as though this user is still executing its cronjob, eventhough it has been removed from the system.

Is there a better method to remove a users crontab from the system? Are cron jobs held somewhere in memory, or another file? Do I need to recycle the cron daemon?

I noticed the user still remains in /var/adm/cron/cron.alllow, obviously since he is no longer on the system I should remove it from that file. However I do not think this is the source of the issue, since the user is attempting to run a crontab at precisely the same time he would have run it were his crontab file still present - hence my thoughts that something is being held about this in another file or in memory.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Prashanth.D.S]

Hi There,

With the user removed, here is how to rid the system of the cron jobs that have
been scheduled to run as the user:

1) If it exists, `vi /var/adm/cron/cron.allow` file and remove the user.

2) Remove the user's crontab:
#rm /var/spool/cron/crontabs/user_name

3) Stop and start cron:
# /sbin/init.d/cron stop
# /sbin/init.d/cron start

I guess you have to stop and start the cron, have you done this ?

Best Regards,
Prashanth

[Prashanth.D.S]

Hi There,

With the user removed, here is how to rid the system of the cron jobs that have
been scheduled to run as the user:

1) If it exists, `vi /var/adm/cron/cron.allow` file and remove the user.

2) Remove the user's crontab:
#rm /var/spool/cron/crontabs/user_name

3) Stop and start cron:
# /sbin/init.d/cron stop
# /sbin/init.d/cron start

I guess you have to stop and start the cron, have you done this ? If not please try and let me know.

Best Regards,
Prashanth

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

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

You must restart the daemon after denying or authorizing users to use cron.

SEP

[Peter Nikitka · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I think, after executing a
crontab -r

before calling the 'userdel' no restart of the cron daemon should be necessary.

mfG Peter

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Peter is correct. The proper way to manage crontasks is to use the 'crontab' command. Manually adding and/or removing files in '/var/spool/cron/crontabs' does not signal the 'cron' daemon of any changes. While adding or removing files and then stopping and restarting 'cron' would indeed accomplish the same objective, this is overkill and could potentially result in one or more user's missing a scheduled job start.

Regards!

...JRF...