Crontab - Recommended way to edit?

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

What is the best way to modify the crontab file??

Edit the file and then use crontab 'filename' ???

I do not know how to use pico editor - so I cannot modify it this way, Any help is appreciated.

2

Try this:

export EDITOR=vi  # or whatever editor you want to use
crontab -e        # edit your crontab file or create one if it doesn't exist
3

On one machine I helped on, the admin required changes to CRON to be done in the following manner ...

# crontab -l > /dir/cron.chg.YYMMDDHHMM
# edit /dir/cron.chg.YYMMDDHHMM
# crontab /dir/cron.chg.YYMMDDHHMM

Was a bit mundane at first but was a lifesaver if something didn't work as planned - the crontab file was pretty big.

4

I edited the root cron file myself, updated and used crontab root and this updated correctly but good idea to copy it out to another file in case of any problems...

Thanks!!