Re: user unable to access "crontab -e"

On Thu, Jul 02, 2026 at 05:33:57AM -0600, D. R. Evans wrote:
> Greg Wooledge wrote on 7/1/26 8:19 PM:
> 
> > 
> > Without -b, we can deduce that the Kate command line process is
> > sending the edit request to an "already running Kate instance", and
> > then terminating, at which point crontab checks the file, sees no
> > change, and reports the lack of changes, leaving the installed crontab
> > unchanged.
> 
> Yes... except that I wasn't using any other instance of kate [...]

You were, you just didn't know: kate was helpfully doing that for you :)

As Greg explains in another post, what happens is that crontab invokes
an editor and waits until that process returns. Then it "knows" you
are done editing, picks up the modified file and installs it in
place.

Kate (without the -b option) breaks that expectation by returning
immediately (crontab "thinks" you are done) and continuing "in the
background" (from the POV of crontab) letting you edit the file.

At that point in time, crontab has already picked up the (yet
unmodified) file. Any modifications you may make are lost, since
too late.

Cheers
-- 
t

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