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Default logging mechanism in Debian GNU / Linux and rest of its forks Ubuntu, Xubuntu whatever is done that there is no separate logging for cron daemon (/usr/sbin/cron). Instead all output messages from cron service gets logged in /var/log/auth.log

I don’t like this and since I ever remember using Linux I always liked it whether cron logs its activities in /var/log/cron.log.

Hence on each and every new Desktop or Server install, one of my first things is to set crond log msg separately in /var/log/cron.log.

In older Debians syslog, was used whether in Debian Squeeze, (Wheezy) and onwards releases rsyslog is used.

On hosts depending on syslogd or rsyslogd to manage logs, to enable cron.log just uncomment in either /etc/syslog.conf or /etc/rsyslog.conf:


# cron.* /var/log/cron.log



cron.* /var/log/cron.log


Create cron.log


linux:~# touch /var/log/cron.log


And restart syslogd / rsyslogd and cron


linux:~# /etc/init.d/rsyslogd restart
Stopping enhanced syslogd: rsyslogd.
Starting enhanced syslogd: rsyslogd.
linux:~# /etc/init.d/cron restart
Restarting periodic command scheduler: cron.
....


Check cron.log to see it logs fine:


linux:~# tail -n 5 /var/log/cron.log
Oct 4 16:31:27 pcfreak /usr/sbin/cron[32413]: (CRON) STARTUP (fork ok)
Oct 4 16:31:27 pcfreak /usr/sbin/cron[32413]: (CRON) INFO
(Skipping @reboot jobs -- not system startup)
Oct 4 16:32:35 pcfreak /usr/sbin/cron[32468]: (CRON) INFO
(pidfile fd = 3)
Oct 4 16:32:35 pcfreak /usr/sbin/cron[32469]: (CRON) STARTUP
(fork ok)
Oct 4 16:32:35 pcfreak /usr/sbin/cron[32469]: (CRON) INFO
(Skipping @reboot jobs -- not system startup)


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Tags: Debian, enable, Linux, separately

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2012 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Everyday Life, System Administration, Various. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.