Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 09:24:37 -0500 From: "Pierre A. Humblet" To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: Problem with installing crontab on Cygwin(1.5.11/1005.11.0.0)/WinXP SP2 Message-ID: <20041103142437.GA648719@Worldnet> References: <3adf6db80411030213560868d3 AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3adf6db80411030213560868d3@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 10:13:55AM +0000, Barry Kelly wrote: > On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 18:33:57 -0500, Harig, Mark wrote: > > I (Barry Kelly) wrote: > > > I'm getting the following error when trying to install a > > > crontab on my account: > > > > > > $ crontab -e > > > # editing my crontab here... > > > chown: Invalid argument > > > > Please run this diagnostic script. It will attempt to locate > > many types of common problems with cron on cygwin. > > > > http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2004-07/msg00207.html > > > > Please read the output of the script carefully. If it finds > > problems, it suggests possible fixes, and it will also recommend > > steps to take if it is unable to detect any problems > > I did what it suggested: the errors it notified me were that > /etc/passwd and /etc/group needed to be marked +r. I did this (chmod > 0644). > > > For what it is worth, crond is working on both Win2K and WinXP for me. > > In the previous three installs of cygwin I did, it was working under > both Win2K and WinXP for me too. > > However, crond (specifically, the daemon) isn't part of the problem. > Crontab fails with the error message even if the service hasn't been > started. I'll download the source and trace through it some time this > evening local time (GMT+0). > > > The following commands should give you a simple, and possibly valid, > > password file: > > > > $ mv /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.save > > $ mkpasswd -l > /etc/passwd > > $ mkpasswd -d -u [your Windows user ID] >> /etc/passwd > > > > You would edit your entry then if you wanted to change your login > > shell, home directory, group, etc. > > Sure. Did this, but got no further. > > Thanks for the reply. BTW, I'm subscribed to this list and will be > until I get this error fixed, so there's no need to cc me. crontab chowns the crontab file group to 18. Make sure that gid 18 is in /etc/group. Also I find it hard to believe that the strace you got gives no useful information. Pierre -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/