Debugging Cron tasks /Crontab
1. Check the contents of crontab
crontab -e
2. Check the permissions of script/directory locations being referred in the crontab.
3. Ensure the appropriate users are configured for crontab
vi /etc/cron.deny
vi /etc/cron.allow
4. Is the crond running?
service crond status
5. Confirm there are no exceptions/messages
sudo tail -f /var/log/cron
sudo tail -f /var/log/messages
6. sudo cat /etc/pam.d/crond
Expected output :
auth sufficient pam_env.so
auth required pam_rootok.so
auth include system-auth
account required pam_access.so
account include system-auth
session required pam_loginuid.so
session include system-auth
7. Ensure there are no unread status mails for you sent by crond –
cat /var/spool/mail/nraj
Following the above steps, helped me debug the error in my crontab which was that I had an extra * (6 parameters instead of the required 5) while defining the frequency of the cron script…DUH!!!
Reference: https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=2209522&start=15&tstart=0