size of the cron entries

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i have some users that are having issues when adding new entries to their crontab. is there a known limit on the size of a crontab file for a user and can it be adjusted? I've searched all over and can't find anything on this.

users issue

The problem is as we go on adding new cron entries, a strange thing happens. If the size of the cron entries (easily captured by crontab -l > mycronfile.txt ;) goes above 100K, the next day, new cron entries we had added disappear. Somehow the earlier crontab is restored.

Is there a limit on how much you can add to the crontab on this machine? If yes, can that be adjusted to be large enough? If not, what’s causing this?

MW
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Responses

ir. Jan Gerrit Kootstra's picture Guru 6222 points
25 April 2014 7:06 PM

Mark,

I would advise you ot open a support case for this issue. I do see any hints in the manpages of crontab.

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

to Community Member 50 points
2 May 2014 11:18 AM

Mark,
Solution is to add to crontab link to shell script. In that case you have 1 line crontab file, and endles line script.

james.radtke@siriusxm.com's picture Guru 6863 points
4 May 2014 2:02 PM

What is your procedure to update the user's crontab? (I'm just curious).

I have had issues with updating files and not having the trailing CARRIAGE RETURN and things would fail. Your situation sounds different though.

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