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might be somewhat of a boring topic, but I was at it whole last night, cant seem to get it up and running.

root@host:~# /etc/init.d/cron status
Checking periodic command scheduler...done (running).

So the service seems to be running fine.

I have tried number of simple test cron jobs, but non of them worked:

* * * * * echo "Hello world !!!" 2&>1 >> /tmp/lol.log
05 06 * * mon-fri echo "Nightly Backup Successful: $(date)" >> /tmp/test.log

as well as that, one of the programers gave me this job, that i know is perfectly working on our current production server:

* * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null http://www.hostname.com/test/email_au

So in the end, non of them seem to be working, I have been going throught a number of guides on the web, but non of them seem to help. What could be missing ?

EDIT: The only cron related files in etc are: cron.d, cron.daily, cron.hourly, cron.monthly, cron.weekly, crontab. There is no cron.deny nor cron.allow files there. Also I am trying to run those cron jobs as root.

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  • have you checked your /etc/security/time.conf if you have placed any schedule and also have you altered your /etc/pam.d/cron
    – Noel Ocampo
    Apr 14, 2017 at 11:34

3 Answers 3

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Have you checked cron logs as to what actually happened ?

Usually cron logs are disabled in debian system, enable this in your rsyslogd or syslogd by uncommenting cron log lines in respective configuration file.

cron.*              /var/log/cron.log
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  • By default cron logs go to /var/log/syslog, grep for CRON string
    – kupson
    Feb 15, 2012 at 10:02
  • so do you see any cron logs or not ?
    – kaji
    Feb 15, 2012 at 12:02
  • 1
    I did turn logs on, and saw them, there wasn't much to see. I have done some tests and in the end it turns out that for some reason cron does not react to the current time zone. I have changed the time zone with tzselect on debian and when I do the date , it shows correct date. But cron, for some reason, works according to the old time zone. Any1 knows where does the cron look for a time zone ?
    – Katafalkas
    Feb 17, 2012 at 10:11
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Check if you have files /etc/cron.allow or /etc/cron.deny. Users (but not root) can be restricted from running cron jobs.

From man 1 crontab:

If  the  /etc/cron.allow  file exists, then you must be listed
(one user per line) therein in order to be allowed to use this
command. If the /etc/cron.allow file does not exist but the
/etc/cron.deny file does exist, then you must not be listed in
the /etc/cron.deny file in order to use this command.
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  • The only cron related files/directories in /etc/ are: cron.d, cron.daily, cron.hourly, cron.monthly, cron.weekly, crontab. As well as that I am running those as a root, trying to set a backup.
    – Katafalkas
    Feb 15, 2012 at 11:22
  • Then there is another reason.
    – kupson
    Feb 15, 2012 at 11:36
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What do your cron files look like? I know from some experience there is a bug with some versions of Cron, in that cron will ignore last line of a cron file (meaning your command may just be being ignored since it may be on the last line of the file). Mayhap this might be the issue?

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