Is there a command or an existing script that will let me view all of a *NIX system's scheduled cron jobs at once? I'd like it to include all of the user crontabs, as well as /etc/crontab, and whatever's in /etc/cron.d. It would also be nice to see the specific commands run by run-parts in /etc/crontab.
Ideally, I'd like the output in a nice column form and ordered in some meaningful way.
I could then merge these listings from multiple servers to view the overall "schedule of events."
I was about to write such a script myself, but if someone's already gone to the trouble...
You would have to run this as root, but:
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do crontab -u $user -l; done
will loop over each user name listing out their crontab. The crontabs are owned by the respective users so you won't be able to see another user's crontab w/o being them or root.
Edit if you want to know which user a crontab belongs to, use echo $user
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do echo $user; crontab -u $user -l; done
I ended up writing a script (I'm trying to teach myself the finer points of bash scripting, so that's why you don't see something like Perl here). It's not exactly a simple affair, but it does most of what I need. It uses Kyle's suggestion for looking up individual users' crontabs, but also deals with /etc/crontab (including the scripts launched by run-parts in /etc/cron.hourly, /etc/cron.daily, etc.) and the jobs in the /etc/cron.d directory. It takes all of those and merges them into a display something like the following:
mi h d m w user command
09,39 * * * * root [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find /var/lib/php5/ -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) -print0 | xargs -r -0 rm
47 */8 * * * root rsync -axE --delete --ignore-errors / /mirror/ >/dev/null
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/apt
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/aptitude
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/find
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/logrotate
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/man-db
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/ntp
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/standard
17 1 * * * root /etc/cron.daily/sysklogd
27 2 * * 7 root /etc/cron.weekly/man-db
27 2 * * 7 root /etc/cron.weekly/sysklogd
13 3 * * * archiver /usr/local/bin/offsite-backup 2>&1
32 3 1 * * root /etc/cron.monthly/standard
36 4 * * * yukon /home/yukon/bin/do-daily-stuff
5 5 * * * archiver /usr/local/bin/update-logs >/dev/null
Note that it shows the user, and more-or-less sorts by hour and minute so that I can see the daily schedule.
So far, I've tested it on Ubuntu, Debian, and Red Hat AS.
#!/bin/bash
# System-wide crontab file and cron job directory. Change these for your system.
CRONTAB='/etc/crontab'
CRONDIR='/etc/cron.d'
# Single tab character. Annoyingly necessary.
tab=$(echo -en "\t")
# Given a stream of crontab lines, exclude non-cron job lines, replace
# whitespace characters with a single space, and remove any spaces from the
# beginning of each line.
function clean_cron_lines() {
while read line ; do
echo "${line}" |
egrep --invert-match '^($|\s*#|\s*[[:alnum:]_]+=)' |
sed --regexp-extended "s/\s+/ /g" |
sed --regexp-extended "s/^ //"
done;
}
# Given a stream of cleaned crontab lines, echo any that don't include the
# run-parts command, and for those that do, show each job file in the run-parts
# directory as if it were scheduled explicitly.
function lookup_run_parts() {
while read line ; do
match=$(echo "${line}" | egrep -o 'run-parts (-{1,2}\S+ )*\S+')
if [[ -z "${match}" ]] ; then
echo "${line}"
else
cron_fields=$(echo "${line}" | cut -f1-6 -d' ')
cron_job_dir=$(echo "${match}" | awk '{print $NF}')
if [[ -d "${cron_job_dir}" ]] ; then
for cron_job_file in "${cron_job_dir}"/* ; do # */ <not a comment>
[[ -f "${cron_job_file}" ]] && echo "${cron_fields} ${cron_job_file}"
done
fi
fi
done;
}
# Temporary file for crontab lines.
temp=$(mktemp) || exit 1
# Add all of the jobs from the system-wide crontab file.
cat "${CRONTAB}" | clean_cron_lines | lookup_run_parts >"${temp}"
# Add all of the jobs from the system-wide cron directory.
cat "${CRONDIR}"/* | clean_cron_lines >>"${temp}" # */ <not a comment>
# Add each user's crontab (if it exists). Insert the user's name between the
# five time fields and the command.
while read user ; do
crontab -l -u "${user}" 2>/dev/null |
clean_cron_lines |
sed --regexp-extended "s/^((\S+ +){5})(.+)$/\1${user} \3/" >>"${temp}"
done < <(cut --fields=1 --delimiter=: /etc/passwd)
# Output the collected crontab lines. Replace the single spaces between the
# fields with tab characters, sort the lines by hour and minute, insert the
# header line, and format the results as a table.
cat "${temp}" |
sed --regexp-extended "s/^(\S+) +(\S+) +(\S+) +(\S+) +(\S+) +(\S+) +(.*)$/\1\t\2\t\3\t\4\t\5\t\6\t\7/" |
sort --numeric-sort --field-separator="${tab}" --key=2,1 |
sed "1i\mi\th\td\tm\tw\tuser\tcommand" |
column -s"${tab}" -t
rm --force "${temp}"
<' showcrons.sh: line 59: done < <(cut --fields=1 --delimiter=: /etc/passwd)'
/etc/anacrontab
Under Ubuntu or debian, you can view crontab by /var/spool/cron/crontabs/ and then a file for each user is in there. That's only for user-specific crontab's of course.
For Redhat 6/7 and Centos, the crontab is under /var/spool/cron/.
/etc/passwd. IMO this should be the accepted answer, rather than all of the brute-force solutions.
This will show all crontab entries from all users.
sed 's/^\([^:]*\):.*$/crontab -u \1 -l 2>\&1/' /etc/passwd | sh | grep -v "no crontab for"
getent passwd | awk -F: '{ print $1 }' | sudo xargs -n1 crontab -l -u
Depends on your linux version but I use:
tail -n 1000 /var/spool/cron/*
as root. Very simple and very short.
Gives me output like:
==> /var/spool/cron/root <==
15 2 * * * /bla
==> /var/spool/cron/my_user <==
*/10 1 * * * /path/to/script
tail -n +1 /var/spool/cron/* to list all content of the files.
sudo sh -c 'tail -n +1 /var/spool/cron/*' if you don't want to become root. My OCD compelled me to investigate why I couldn't sudo this command as written. It was because regular users don't have access to /var/spool/cron dir, and the glob was being interpreted as a literal star character, which obviously doesn't exist.
cd /var/spool/cron/cron/ && grep . * will also print corresponding user name in front of every cron job
A small refinement of Kyle Burton's answer with improved output formatting:
#!/bin/bash
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd)
do echo $user && crontab -u $user -l
echo " "
done
getent passwd | cut -d: -f1 | perl -e'while(<>){chomp;$l = `crontab -u $_ -l 2>/dev/null`;print "$_\n$l\n" if $l}'
This avoids messing with passwd directly, skips users that have no cron entries and for those who have them it prints out the username as well as their crontab.
Mostly dropping this here though so i can find it later in case i ever need to search for it again.
/etc/passwd. Matt's solution above is more appropriate to this particular situation, but it's good to know that the command exists.
To get list from ROOT user.
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do echo $user; sudo crontab -u $user -l; done
If you check a cluster using NIS, the only way to see if a user has a crontab entry ist according to Matt's answer /var/spool/cron/tabs.
grep -v "#" -R /var/spool/cron/tabs
This script worked for me in CentOS to list all crons in the environment:
sudo cat /etc/passwd | sed 's/^\([^:]*\):.*$/sudo crontab -u \1 -l 2>\&1/' | grep -v "no crontab for" | sh
cat /etc/passwd | sed 's/^\([^:]*\):.*$/echo "\ncrontab for \1:"; sudo crontab -u \1 -l 2>\&1/' | grep -v "no crontab for" | sh saves a little bit of time
getent passwd | awk -F: '{ print $1 }' | sudo xargs -n1 crontab -l -u
I like the simple one-liner answer above:
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do crontab -u $user -l; done
But Solaris which does not have the -u flag and does not print the user it's checking, you can modify it like so:
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do echo User:$user; crontab -l $user 2>&1 | grep -v crontab; done
You will get a list of users without the errors thrown by crontab when an account is not allowed to use cron etc. Be aware that in Solaris, roles can be in /etc/passwd too (see /etc/user_attr).
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd);
do
echo $user; crontab -u $user -l;
done
The following strips away comments, empty lines, and errors from users with no crontab. All you're left with is a clear list of users and their jobs.
Note the use of sudo in the 2nd line. If you're already root, remove that.
for USER in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do \
USERTAB="$(sudo crontab -u "$USER" -l 2>&1)"; \
FILTERED="$(echo "$USERTAB"| grep -vE '^#|^$|no crontab for|cannot use this program')"; \
if ! test -z "$FILTERED"; then \
echo "# ------ $(tput bold)$USER$(tput sgr0) ------"; \
echo "$FILTERED"; \
echo ""; \
fi; \
done
Example output:
# ------ root ------
0 */6 * * * /usr/local/bin/disk-space-notify.sh
45 3 * * * /opt/mysql-backups/mysql-backups.sh
5 7 * * * /usr/local/bin/certbot-auto renew --quiet --no-self-upgrade
# ------ sammy ------
55 * * * * wget -O - -q -t 1 https://www.example.com/cron.php > /dev/null
I use this on Ubuntu (12 thru 16) and Red Hat (5 thru 7).
While many of the answers produce useful results, I think the hustle of maintaining a complex script for this task is not worth it. This is mainly because most distros use different cron daemons.
Watch and learn, kids & elders.
$ \cat ~jaroslav/bin/ls-crons
#!/bin/bash
getent passwd | awk -F: '{ print $1 }' | xargs -I% sh -c 'crontab -l -u % | sed "/^$/d; /^#/d; s/^/% /"' 2>/dev/null
echo
cat /etc/crontab /etc/anacrontab 2>/dev/null | sed '/^$/d; /^#/d;'
echo
run-parts --list /etc/cron.hourly;
run-parts --list /etc/cron.daily;
run-parts --list /etc/cron.weekly;
run-parts --list /etc/cron.monthly;
Run like this
$ sudo ls-cron
Sample output (Gentoo)
$ sudo ~jaroslav/bin/ls-crons
jaroslav */5 * * * * mv ~/java_error_in_PHPSTORM* ~/tmp 2>/dev/null
jaroslav 5 */24 * * * ~/bin/Find-home-files
jaroslav * 7 * * * cp /T/fortrabbit/ssh-config/fapps.tsv /home/jaroslav/reference/fortrabbit/fapps
jaroslav */8 1 * * * make -C /T/fortrabbit/ssh-config discover-apps # >/dev/null
jaroslav */7 * * * * getmail -r jazzoslav -r fortrabbit 2>/dev/null
jaroslav */1 * * * * /home/jaroslav/bin/checkmail
jaroslav * 9-18 * * * getmail -r fortrabbit 2>/dev/null
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
RANDOM_DELAY=45
START_HOURS_RANGE=3-22
1 5 cron.daily nice run-parts /etc/cron.daily
7 25 cron.weekly nice run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
@monthly 45 cron.monthly nice run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
/etc/cron.hourly/0anacron
/etc/cron.daily/logrotate
/etc/cron.daily/man-db
/etc/cron.daily/mlocate
/etc/cron.weekly/mdadm
/etc/cron.weekly/pfl
Sample output (Ubuntu)
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
/etc/cron.hourly/btrfs-quota-cleanup
/etc/cron.hourly/ntpdate-debian
/etc/cron.daily/apport
/etc/cron.daily/apt-compat
/etc/cron.daily/apt-show-versions
/etc/cron.daily/aptitude
/etc/cron.daily/bsdmainutils
/etc/cron.daily/dpkg
/etc/cron.daily/logrotate
/etc/cron.daily/man-db
/etc/cron.daily/mlocate
/etc/cron.daily/passwd
/etc/cron.daily/popularity-contest
/etc/cron.daily/ubuntu-advantage-tools
/etc/cron.daily/update-notifier-common
/etc/cron.daily/upstart
/etc/cron.weekly/apt-xapian-index
/etc/cron.weekly/man-db
/etc/cron.weekly/update-notifier-common
Pics
Ubuntu:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/fyNiH.png
Gentoo:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/vETIY.png
Depends on your version of cron. Using Vixie cron on FreeBSD, I can do something like this:
(cd /var/cron/tabs && grep -vH ^# *)
if I want it more tab deliminated, I might do something like this:
(cd /var/cron/tabs && grep -vH ^# * | sed "s/:/ /")
Where that's a literal tab in the sed replacement portion.
It may be more system independent to loop through the users in /etc/passwd and do crontab -l -u $user for each of them.
you can write for all user list :
sudo crontab -u userName -l
,
You can also go to
cd /etc/cron.daily/
ls -l
cat filename
this file will list the schedules
cd /etc/cron.d/
ls -l
cat filename
On Solaris, for a particular known user name:
crontab -l username
To get all user's jobs at once on Solaris, much like other posts above:
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do crontab -l $user 2>/dev/null; done
https://i.stack.imgur.com/1PT7z.png
Thanks for this very useful script. I had some tiny problems running it on old systems (Red Hat Enterprise 3, which handle differently egrep and tabs in strings), and other systems with nothing in /etc/cron.d/ (the script then ended with an error). So here is a patch to make it work in such cases :
2a3,4
> #See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/134906/how-do-i-list-all-cron-jobs-for-all-users
>
27c29,30
< match=$(echo "${line}" | egrep -o 'run-parts (-{1,2}\S+ )*\S+')
---
> #match=$(echo "${line}" | egrep -o 'run-parts (-{1,2}\S+ )*\S+')
> match=$(echo "${line}" | egrep -o 'run-parts.*')
51c54,57
< cat "${CRONDIR}"/* | clean_cron_lines >>"${temp}" # */ <not a comment>
---
> sys_cron_num=$(ls /etc/cron.d | wc -l | awk '{print $1}')
> if [ "$sys_cron_num" != 0 ]; then
> cat "${CRONDIR}"/* | clean_cron_lines >>"${temp}" # */ <not a comment>
> fi
67c73
< sed "1i\mi\th\td\tm\tw\tuser\tcommand" |
---
> sed "1i\mi${tab}h${tab}d${tab}m${tab}w${tab}user${tab}command" |
I'm not really sure the changes in the first egrep are a good idea, but well, this script has been tested on RHEL3,4,5 and Debian5 without any problem. Hope this helps!
i made below one liner script and it worked for me to list all cron jobs for all users.
cat /etc/passwd |awk -F ':' '{print $1}'|while read a;do crontab -l -u ${a} ; done
Building on top of @Kyle
for user in $(tail -n +11 /etc/passwd | cut -f1 -d:); do echo $user; crontab -u $user -l; done
to avoid the comments usually at the top of /etc/passwd,
And on macosx
for user in $(dscl . -list /users | cut -f1 -d:); do echo $user; crontab -u $user -l; done
grep -v '^#' instead of relying on magic number 11?
I think a better one liner would be below. For example if you have users in NIS or LDAP they wouldnt be in /etc/passwd. This will give you the crontabs of every user that has logged in.
for I in `lastlog | grep -v Never | cut -f1 -d' '`; do echo $I ; crontab -l -u $I ; done
With apologies and thanks to yukondude.
I've tried to summarise the timing settings for easy reading, though it's not a perfect job, and I don't touch 'every Friday' or 'only on Mondays' stuff.
This is version 10 - it now:
runs much much faster
has optional progress characters so you could improve the speed further.
uses a divider line to separate header and output.
outputs in a compact format when all timing intervals uencountered can be summarised.
Accepts Jan...Dec descriptors for months-of-the-year
Accepts Mon...Sun descriptors for days-of-the-week
tries to handle debian-style dummying-up of anacron when it is missing
tries to deal with crontab lines which run a file after pre-testing executability using "[ -x ... ]"
tries to deal with crontab lines which run a file after pre-testing executability using "command -v"
allows the use of interval spans and lists.
supports run-parts usage in user-specific /var/spool crontab files.
I am now publishing the script in full here.
https://gist.github.com/myshkin-uk/d667116d3e2d689f23f18f6cd3c71107
Since it is a matter of looping through a file (/etc/passwd) and performing an action, I am missing the proper approach on How can I read a file (data stream, variable) line-by-line (and/or field-by-field)?:
while IFS=":" read -r user _
do
echo "crontab for user ${user}:"
crontab -u "$user" -l
done < /etc/passwd
This reads /etc/passwd line by line using : as field delimiter. By saying read -r user _, we make $user hold the first field and _ the rest (it is just a junk variable to ignore fields).
This way, we can then call crontab -u using the variable $user, which we quote for safety (what if it contains spaces? It is unlikely in such file, but you can never know).
I tend to use following small commands to list all jobs for single user and all users on Unix based operating systems with a modern bash console:
1. Single user
echo "Jobs owned by $USER" && crontab -l -u $USER
2. All users
for wellknownUser in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd);
do
echo "Jobs owned by $wellknownUser";
crontab -l -u $wellknownUser;
echo -e "\n";
sleep 2; # (optional sleep 2 seconds) while drinking a coffee
done
For me look at /var/spool/cron/crontabs is the best way
This script outputs the Crontab to a file and also lists all users confirming those which have no crontab entry:
for user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do
echo $user >> crontab.bak
echo "" >> crontab.bak
crontab -u $user -l >> crontab.bak 2>> > crontab.bak
done
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for user in $(getent passwd | cut -f1 -d: ); do echo $user; crontab -u $user -l; donefor user in $(cut -f1 -d: /etc/passwd); do crontab -u $user -l 2>/dev/null | grep -v '^#'; donefor user in $(getent passwd | awk -F : '{print $1}'); do echo $user; crontab -u $user -l; done/etc/cron.hourly/,/etc/cron.daily/,/etc/cron.weekly/,/etc/cron.monthly/...?