/etc/crontab or any user crontab is not being executed

Question

My server is CentOS 5. When I edit /etc/crontab or edit any user(including root) crontab via "crontab -e" command, it just adds "(system) RELOAD (/etc/crontab)" or "(admin) RELOAD (cron/admin)" in the log. No CMD in the /var/log/cron.

Sample entry in /var/log/cron:

Aug 10 10:21:33 localhost crontab[31688]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root)
Aug 10 10:21:42 localhost crontab[31688]: (root) REPLACE (root)
Aug 10 10:21:42 localhost crontab[31688]: (root) END EDIT (root)
Aug 10 10:22:01 localhost crond[2688]: (root) RELOAD (cron/root)

Result of "service crond status":

crond (pid 1345) is running...

The command "cat /var/log/messages | grep cron" does not give anything.

Contents of /etc/cron.allow:

admin
root

Contents of /etc/crontab:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
* * * * * root run-parts /bin/date >> /data/date.txt

Result of ps aux |grep cron:

root      1345  0.0  0.1   5268  1204 ?        Ss   11:43   0:00 crond

Contents of admin's crontab:

* * * * * /bin/date >> /data/date.txt

Note that it's not only admin's crontab that's not running. All cron jobs are not running.

Any ideas why they aren't running?

Answer 1

Check you don't have a /etc/cron.allow file or /etc/cron.deny file causing jobs to be ignored.

If /etc/cron.allow is not there then everyone can run cron jobs. If it is there but empty I am not sure if that allows anyone to run cron jobs.

Answer 2

The is an error in your crontab, look at:

 * * * * * root run-parts /bin/date >> /data/date.txt

You invoke run-parts with the directory /bin/date - surely this will fail. The error goes to stderr and isn't cached by >>

Answer 3

Create the file named /etc/cron.allow if it doesn't exist and add the username to it.

Answer 4

Although answer has been accepted for this question, I will like to add what worked for me. it's a good idea to quote the URL, if it contains a query it may not work without everything being quoted.

DONT FORGET TO PUT YOUR URL WHICH CONTAINS "?, =, #, %" IN A QUOTE.

Example. https://paystack.com/indexphp?docs/api/#transaction-charge-authorization&date=today should be in a quote like so "https://paystack.com/indexphp?docs/api/#transaction-charge-authorization&date=today"