What is the difference between crontab -e and nano /etc/crontab? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

The crontab -e command will edit the crontab for your current user. This means that you do not need to include the username in the crontab line. Each user's crontab is stored in /var/spool/cron/crontabs, under the user's name.

The format of a user specific crontab is:

# m h  dom mon dow  command
*   *   *   *   *   some_command

The crontab -e command will use whichever editor is set in your user's $EDITOR environment variable, which controls your default text editor for a variety of tasks. If that isn't set the first time you use the crontab command you'll be prompted to choose from a selection of available editors, nano is one of the choices on this list.

Editing /etc/crontab requires that you include a username that's running the command after the time setting part of the line.

The format of /etc/crontab is:

# m h dom mon dow user      command
*   *  *   *   *  someuser  some_command