crontab problem

[Umapathy S]

hi all
I am using hpux 10.2. As root there is no problem in creating/editing my crontab entries.
But as other users, they are not able to edit crontab files, ie, when they close an error occurs like
crontab: can't create your crontab file in the crontab directory.
But the cron file exists in the /var/spool/cron/crontabs dir

If I create a new file and save as crontab file, it the file gets loaded.

Other users are not able to run their cronjobs also. It says
crontab: error in message queue open, errno=13
warning: commands will be executed using /usr/bin/sh

I think there are problems with file/dir permissions.

Thanks for your help and time in advance

cheers
Umapathy

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

Do these users have an entry in the
cron.allow file?

Michael

[Mateja Bezjak]

Hi Umpathy,

Do you have a /var/adm/cron/cron.allow file. Root controls who can use crontab through this file. Users are permitted to use crontab command if their names appear in the cron.allow file.

Regards,
Mateja

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

If you are not allowed to run cron in cron.allow, then the error message should be:

$ crontab -e
crontab: you are not authorized to use cron. Sorry.

Check your directory and file ownership and permissions:

$ ll -d /var/spool/cron/crontabs
dr-xr-xr-x 2 bin bin 96 Jan 24 10:14 /var/spool/cron/crontabs

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Umapathy S]

yeah they do have their names in cron.allow file and I have restarted /sbin/init.d/cron also

cheers
Umapathy

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

OS error code 13 is permission denied.

$ grep 13 /usr/include/sys/errno.h
#define EACCES 13 /* Permission denied */

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Umapathy S]

ll -a
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 1024 Mar 28 2001 atjobs
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 342 Jun 10 1996 crontab.root
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 1024 Feb 21 12:50 crontabs

I hope the write permissions dont alter the way cron does work

cheers
Umapathy

[Umapathy S]

I saw the errorno before. So I told there may be some problems with files/dirs.

But I dont know where

cheers
Umapathy

[Umapathy S]

The error is specifically
crontab: error in message queue open, errno=13

ll /var/adm/cron
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 59 Jun 10 1996 .proto
prw------- 1 root root 0 Feb 21 10:49 FIFO
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 107723 Feb 21 12:00 OLDlog
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 33 Nov 29 09:12 at.allow
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 43 Feb 21 10:48 cron.allow
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 204 Feb 21 13:00 log
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 25 Oct 11 2000 queuedefs

Is there any problem with permissions/ownership

cheers
Umapathy

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

What is the output for:

# ll -d /var/spool/cron
# ll -d /var/spool
# ll -d /var
# ll -d /var/tmp

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

What is the output for:

# ll -d /var/spool/cron
# ll -d /var/spool
# ll -d /var/tmp
# ll -d /var
# ll -d /

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

And also the output for

# ll -d /var/adm

If any of the above directories are not executable for others, then you may encounter a problem. The permissions on my system are:

$ ll -d /
drwxr-xr-x 28 root root 2048 Feb 16 12:42 /
$ ll -d /var
dr-xr-xr-x 23 bin bin 2048 Jan 2 11:49 /var
$ ll -d /var/tmp
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 3072 Feb 21 15:16 /var/tmp
$ ll -d /var/adm
drwxr-xr-x 12 adm adm 1024 Jan 11 10:40 /var/adm
$ ll -d /var/adm/cron
dr-xr-xr-x 2 bin bin 1024 Jan 11 10:23 /var/adm/cron
$ ll -d /var/spool
drwxr-xr-x 13 root sys 1024 Apr 20 2001 /var/spool
$ ll -d /var/spool/cron
dr-xr-xr-x 7 bin bin 1024 Jan 10 09:40 /var/spool/cron

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Umapathy S]

ll /var
drwxr-xr-x 3 bin bin 1024 Mar 1 2000 X11
drwxr-xr-x 11 adm adm 1024 Feb 13 09:09 adm
drwxr-xr-x 4 root sys 2048 Feb 21 12:21 dt
drwxrwxr-x 4 root sys 1024 Jul 25 2001 encina
drwxrwxrwx 3 root sys 1024 Oct 29 19:26 lock
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Mar 1 2000 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin mail 1024 Nov 27 16:08 mail
drwxrwsr-x 9 mqm mqm 1024 Feb 17 21:20 mqm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root sys 8 Aug 6 2001 ncs -> /etc/ncs
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin bin 24 Mar 1 2000 news
drwxr-xr-x 13 bin bin 1024 Mar 30 2001 opt
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin bin 24 Mar 1 2000 ppl
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin bin 2048 Mar 29 2001 preserve
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin bin 24 Mar 1 2000 rbootd
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin bin 1024 Feb 5 22:49 run
drwxr-xr-x 8 bin bin 2048 Feb 18 17:00 sam
drwxr-xr-x 14 bin bin 1024 Aug 5 2000 spool
drwxr-xr-x 4 root sys 1024 Mar 1 2000 statmon
drwxrwxrwx 6 root sys 23552 Feb 21 13:19 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 6 bin bin 1024 Mar 1 2000 uucp
drwxr-xr-x 3 root sys 1024 Mar 1 2000 yp

ll /var/spool
drwxrwsrwt 2 daemon daemon 1024 Dec 6 17:36 calendar
drwxrwxrwx 5 bin bin 1024 Mar 1 2000 cron
drwxrwxrwx 2 uucp daemon 24 Mar 1 2000 locks
drwxrwxrwx 4 lp bin 1024 Feb 13 09:08 lp
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 3072 Feb 21 13:01 mqueue
drwxrwxrwx 2 root sys 24 Mar 1 2000 pcnfs
drwxrwxrwx 2 root sys 24 Mar 1 2000 rexd
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 24 Mar 1 2000 rwho
drwxrwxrwx 5 bin bin 1024 Oct 17 13:40 sockets
drwxrwxrwx 3 root sys 1024 Oct 18 10:22 sw
drwxrwxrwx 6 uucp daemon 1024 Mar 1 2000 uucp
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 24 Mar 1 2000 uucppublic

ll /var/spool/cron
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 1024 Mar 28 2001 atjobs
-r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 342 Jun 10 1996 crontab.root
drwxrwxrwx 2 bin bin 1024 Feb 21 12:50 crontabs
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 1024 Feb 21 13:00 tmp

cheers
Umapathy

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

Can you show us the file:

# cat /var/adm/cron/queuedefs

It may be corrupted.

hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Umapathy S]

cat /var/adm/cron/queuedefs
a.4j1n
b.2j2n90w
c.4j904

cheers
Umapathy

[Steven Sim Kok Leong · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Your queuedefs does not look right:

a.4j1n
==> at jobs max 4 jobs at nice value 1

b.2j2n90w
==> batch jobs max 2 jobs at nice value 2 and wait for 90 seconds before retrying when there are busy cron jobs

c.4j904
==> cron jobs max 4 jobs and 904 (?)

I think the 4 should be w.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

Did this problem only eventuate recently
or you've never looked at it? Perhaps one
thing you could look at is some patching.

s700_800 10.20 cumulative cron/at/crontab patch(PHCO_22768)

HTH
-Michael

[Umapathy S]

thanks Steven and all.
queuedefs had the problem, I checked out the man page and corrected that out.

But how root crontab was running fine, while others failed to get queuedefs right

cheers
Umapathy