How to Install Crontab in CentOS/RHEL 7/6/5

After migration our site TecAdmin.net to new VPS (CentOS 6.5) on digital ocean hosting we found that Crontab is not installed on server, When I try to execute crontab -l command, I found following error.

# crontab -l

-bash: crontab: command not found

After checking the package of crontab command in our older system, I found it comes from cronie package. So i think to write it for TecAdmin.net readers. Use below command to install it. this will install required dependencies also

Install Crontab

# yum install cronie

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.web-ster.com
 * updates: mirror.stanford.edu
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package cronie.x86_64 0:1.4.4-12.el6 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: dailyjobs for package: cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package cronie-anacron.x86_64 0:1.4.4-12.el6 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: crontabs for package: cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package crontabs.noarch 0:1.10-33.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package                        Arch      Version           Repository     Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 cronie                         x86_64    1.4.4-12.el6      base           73 k
Installing for dependencies:
 cronie-anacron                 x86_64    1.4.4-12.el6      base           30 k
 crontabs                       noarch    1.10-33.el6       base           10 k

Transaction Summary
==========================================================
Install       3 Package(s)

Total download size: 114 k
Installed size: 220 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/3): cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm                         |  73 kB     00:00
(2/3): cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm                 |  30 kB     00:00
(3/3): crontabs-1.10-33.el6.noarch.rpm                        |  10 kB     00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                336 kB/s | 114 kB     00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing : cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64                   1/3
  Installing : crontabs-1.10-33.el6.noarch                  2/3
  Installing : cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64                           3/3
  Verifying  : crontabs-1.10-33.el6.noarch                                  1/3
  Verifying  : cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64                           2/3
  Verifying  : cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64                                   3/3

Installed:
  cronie.x86_64 0:1.4.4-12.el6

Dependency Installed:
  cronie-anacron.x86_64 0:1.4.4-12.el6            crontabs.noarch 0:1.10-33.el6

Complete!

How to Add New Job in Crontab

To add a new cron use crontab -e to edit it in editor and add cron as per your requirments. In filesystem crons are saved in file /var/spool/cron/<username&gt;.

# crontab -e

Read below article to read more about Crontab with 20 useful examples.

https://tecadmin.net/crontab-in-linux-with-20-examples-of-cron-schedule/

How to List Jobs in Crontab

To list the job scheduler under crontab, we can use -l command line switch with crontab command. For example to list jobs scheduled for current user

# crontab -l

To view jobs scheduled under other user specify username with -a switch like below.

# crontab -u <username> -l