How to correctly edit /etc/cron.d/* files?

When I used

• crontab -l and
• crontab -e

I re-scheduled my cron timings, but found they were still firing at the previous interval.

I then discovered cron-format files under /etc/cron.d/ which contain the previous scheduling, and I now assume it is these files which cron is obeying.

So I want to edit these, and remove the redundant "masking" lines from the main crontab, but the usage for crontab is:

usage:  crontab [-u user] file
        crontab [-u user] { -e | -l | -r }

So using -l or -e seems mutually exclusive with specifying the file.

What is the correct way to edit files /etc/cron.d/* ?

Solution 1:

You can just use the editor of your choice to modify the cron.d files.

There's no need to use the crontab command.