Editing crontab

Clearly over my head in this, but I started and despite reading, still confused.

I have a crontab that was created in terminal. It is set to run a script at a certain time. While fooling with it I created a number of crontabs as I was testing it out so that it would go off at different times.

Now, I would like to delete the crontabs that I don't want and leave the one that I do want.

When I enter crontab -e,it looks like there are previous cron action times that I set it to go off. Is this where I would delete the ones I don't want?...and how to edit it ?

Many thanks

g4 quicksilver, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Feb 7, 2008 5:57 PM

Top-ranking reply

Zerwas

Level 4

1,154 points

Posted on Feb 8, 2008 5:57 AM

When you have run crontab -e, you are in the vi Editor, when you have not defined an another Editor. In this entry mode, you can delete, cut, copy and paste the entrys, but not writing.

In this Mode select the line, do you want to delete and press dd, or x for selection delete. This command removes the current line or sign under the cursor. Press u for undo, when you have made a mistake.

When you want to make changes, press i for insert. Have you done the work, press esc.

Then press keys for the sign :. When you see below the sign : type wq, this write the file and quit the Editor.

Vi is not an Friendly Editor, but very flexible.

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22 replies

Feb 8, 2008 7:21 AM in response to Zerwas

Assume I need to press return key after entering :wq right?

Zerwas

Level 4

1,154 points

Feb 8, 2008 7:32 AM in response to mrokloricred37

YES. When below stands :wq then hit enter.

Feb 8, 2008 7:56 AM in response to Zerwas

I can't thank you enough for your amazing patience and help with me. Do you have a "simple" reference to help me learn this?

Once again, many many thanks

Zerwas

Level 4

1,154 points

Feb 8, 2008 8:01 AM in response to mrokloricred37

An good tutorial for vi is included in the system. In the terminal type vimtutor.

Feb 8, 2008 9:29 AM in response to Zerwas

What is the proper way to exit terminal after reviewing tutorial? Seems that just quitting is not the correct thing to do

thanks

Zerwas

Level 4

1,154 points

Feb 8, 2008 10:09 AM in response to mrokloricred37

Use :q for quit the tutorial.

And close an Terminalsession with exit or press control d.

Message was edited by: Zerwas

Feb 10, 2008 5:56 PM in response to Tony T1

Tony T1 wrote:
[. . .] he now knows how to use crontab -- not a bad thing, however, better if he knows crontab and launchd)

Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more.

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Editing crontab