How to Display (List) All Jobs in Cron / Crontab

Servers can automatically perform tasks that you would otherwise have to perform yourself, such as running scripts. On Linux cloud dedicated servers or VPS servers, the cron utility is the preferred way to automate the running of scripts. In this article, we’ll cover how to view the jobs scheduled in the crontab list. For an introduction to Cron check-out our KB: How To: Automate Server Scripts With Cron. Knowing how to set up crontab is an important skill, but even if you’re not editing these knowing how to view them is important as well.

How to View Jobs in Crontab

crontab -l

crontab -u username -l

Example with user testuser:

crontab -u testuser -l

View Daily Cron Jobs

View all the daily cron jobs:

ls -la /etc/cron.daily/

View a specific daily cron job:

less /etc/cron.daily/filename

Example with file name logrotate:

less /etc/cron.daily/logrotate

View Hourly Cron Jobs

First view all the hourly cron jobs:

ls -la /etc/cron.hourly/

Then view a specific hourly cron job:

less /etc/cron.hourly/filename

Example with file name 0anacron:

less /etc/cron.hourly/0anacron

View Weekly Cron Jobs

First view all the weekly cron jobs:

ls -la /etc/cron.weekly/

Then view a specific weekly cron job:

less /etc/cron.weekly/filename

Example with file name weeklyexample:

less /etc/cron.weekly/weeklyexample

View Monthly Cron Jobs

First view all the monthly cron jobs:

ls -la /etc/cron.monthly/

Then view a specific monthly cron job:

less /etc/cron.monthly/filename

Example with file name readahead-monthly.cron:

less /etc/cron.monthly/readahead-monthly.cron

View /etc/crontab

less /etc/crontab

Example Result:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root

# For details see man 4 crontabs

# Example of job definition:
# .---------------- minute (0 - 59)
# |  .------------- hour (0 - 23)
# |  |  .---------- day of month (1 - 31)
# |  |  |  .------- month (1 - 12) OR jan,feb,mar,apr ...
# |  |  |  |  .---- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0 or 7) OR sun,mon,tue,wed,thu,fri,sat
# |  |  |  |  |
# *  *  *  *  * user-name  command to be executed

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Video Update by Justin Palmer