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I know that cron events are stored in /var/log/syslog and I can use a command like:

sudo cat /var/log/syslog | grep cron

to see them.

I'd much rather have the system keep a separate cron log file so it doesn't do as much work watching it, as it sorts through all the syslog messages to pull out the cron notifications.

Then I want to use the watch command so I always have an open terminal window showing cron activity.

How do I make the system keep a separate /var/log/cron.log file?

SDsolar
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1 Answers1

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Make a change in /etc/rsyslog.conf with your favorite editor:

sudo vi /etc/rsyslog/50-default.conf

Find the line that says 

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

Remove the # from that line. Then restart the service:

sudo service rsyslog restart

From then on, all cron-related output will go to /etc/log/cron.log

Then to watch it in a terminal window,

create a wcron command script:

echo "#!/bin/bash" >wcron
echo "watch -n 120 tail -n25 /etc/log/cron" >>wcron
chmod +x wcron
sudo cp wcron /usr/sbin

From then on, whenever you want to monitor cron in real-time, enter:

wcron
SDsolar
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