I've put a file called 'test' in /etc/cron.hourly. Its code is:
I made it executable and waited for the turn of the hour, but nothing happened. The file did not appear in /home/ja.
Here is my crontab (I dont understand this file, even after reading the man pages)
# /etc/crontab: system-wide crontab
# Unlike any other crontab you don't have to run the `crontab'
# command to install the new version when you edit this file.
# This file also has a username field, that none of the other crontabs do.
# m h dom mon dow user command
17 * * * * root run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly