QNAP NAS Community Forum

Hello All

I'm a complete noob to Unix. I am trying to edit the crontab file, i can edit it by tryping

crontab -e admin

I can then make changes etc, then i try to save it with :wq but it never saves the changes. I'm obviously doing something wrong I just can't figure out what. Using an outdated Linux Handbook doesn't help iether.

Thanks in advance
wechap

Figured it out

I thought I had figured it out

I created a txt file called cron.txt with the modified commands and ran crontab cron.txt, I than ran crontab -l to make sure the change had worked and all looked ok, but after rebooting i am back to the default crontab.

I am trying to change the imr_all command so that it only runs on the folder that contains the pictures instead of all the folders in my Qmultimedia share, otherwise it runs for hours before it completes.

Anyone know why the crontab would reset to the default?

Hi. Changes to /etc don't survive a reboot. However, QNAP have provided a method to automatically recreate customisations after every reboot:

The way to do it is to put your customisations in autorun.sh, a script that qnap runs immediately after a reboot. autorun.sh is hidden away on a partition that is normally unmounted, but it can be accessed as follows (for my dual disk 209 anyway):

# mount /dev/mtdblock5 /tmp/config
# cd /tmp/config

Add your modifications to autorun.sh and then unmount the partition:

# cd /
# umount /tmp/config

From now on your customisations will be automatically recreated on every reboot.

Thanks Stephen, works nicely

Stephen Howard wrote:Add your modifications to autorun.sh and then unmount the partition:

Hello Stephen,

please can you explain to me what excactly is to change or to add when i have changed the crontab ? regards Christian

Hi wechap,
Just one remark upon crontab : if you have already tasks in the crontab, don't forget to save them : then you can edit and complete crontab.txt. Anyway, it don't solve the reboot problem.
Lou2step

I run crontab -e; make some changes, save them.

Then I run crontab -l or crontab -e and the changes are gone.

I also tried stopping crond, editing /etc/config/crobtab and restarting crond; again my changes are gone.

Anyone had this problem?

Hi,

edit the crontab in /etc/config as before and then run "crontab /etc/config/crontab".
This will configure the crontab with your new entries.

Perfect, thank you!

Any idea how to get cron to log to a file on the qnap? Or setup cron to send mail?

The autorun.sh trick does not appear to work.

stoopid wrote:The autorun.sh trick does not appear to work.

Different mount points for ARM and Intel systems, but you don't need it to edit the crontab. Make your changes to /etc/config/crontab and run 'crontab /etc/config/crontab'.

/Mike

Editing crontabs follow thats tips first crontab restruction,then you give command,open the file syntex,disable the mail account then generate log file for crontab activity.use this contrab command
export EDITOR=vi ;to specify a editor to open crontab file.
crontab -e Edit your crontab file, or create one if it doesn’t already exist.
crontab -l Display your crontab file.
crontab -r Remove your crontab file.
crontab -v Display the last time you edited your crontab file.

micke wrote:

stoopid wrote:The autorun.sh trick does not appear to work.

Different mount points for ARM and Intel systems, but you don't need it to edit the crontab. Make your changes to /etc/config/crontab and run 'crontab /etc/config/crontab'.

/Mike

Sweet, I'll update the Wiki.