I'm trying cron in a Ubuntu VPS with a minimal install, so I had to run
apt-get install cron. However, say I run
crontab -e and add (as root) the following line:
* * * * * date >> /root/datelog
I get the success notification:
crontab: installing new crontab
/root/datelog is never created. If I try
start cron I get:
start: Job is already running: cron
On the other hand,
ps doesn't yield anything:
# ps -ef|grep cron root 3087 10498 0 Mar17 pts/24 00:00:00 grep --color=auto cron root 29081 7863 0 Mar13 pts/8 00:00:00 man crontab
Any thoughts? Thanks!
Edit: Following ImaginaryRobots' suggestion, I have modified my crontab as follows... to no avail.
* * * * * date >> /root/datelog * * * * * date >> /tmp/datelog * * * * * /bin/date >> /root/bindatelog * * * * * /bin/date >> /tmp/bindatelog
I.e., no such files appear either in
/root or in
Edit 2: Maybe I should mention that Ubuntu 12.04 (or at least this VPS) is giving me what I consider to be a well-known bug upon
mount: permission denied dpkg: error processing initscripts (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: initscripts E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Packages install apparently with no problems. But this may be affecting the behavior of the system after all...