Microsoft KB Archive/281559

= Cron.allow File Is Not Automatically Updated When Users Are Added =

Article ID: 281559

Article Last Modified on 10/31/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX 2.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q281559



SYMPTOMS
When you first install Services for UNIX on your Windows 2000 Server-based computer, the %windir%\System32\Drivers\Etc\Cron\Cron.allow disk file is created and members of the administrators group are added to this file. However, the Cron.allow disk file is not updated dynamically when users are added to the administrators group. Instead, you must manually update this file to provide users with the appropriate permissions to use the Crontab utility.



CAUSE
You can use Crontab if your name exists in the Cron.allow file. If that file does not exist, the %windir%\System32\Drivers\Etc\Cron\Cron.deny file is checked to determine if you should be denied access to Crontab. If neither file exists, only users that are members of the Administrator group can submit a job. If both files exist, only the Cron.allow file is checked. If the Cron.allow file does not exist and the Cron.deny file exists but is empty, global usage is permitted.



STATUS
This behavior is by design.



MORE INFORMATION
The Crontab utility is included with Windows Services for UNIX 2.0, and you can use this utility to start a process that runs commands at dates and times that you specify. Users can use Crontab if their names appear in the Cron.allow file. The allow/deny files are made up of one user name for each line.

The %windir%\System32\Drivers\Etc\Cron\Cron.deny and %windir%\System32\Drivers\Etc\Cron\Cron.allow files contain user names, one on each line, that are authorized or denied access to the Crontab utility services.

