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If I look at my man 1 crontab, it says that crontab -n file will test the suitability of file as a parseable crontab file. If I look at man 1 crontab on Man7 or ManKier, they both say that -n does...
#2: Post edited
by
Michael
·
2026-07-06T00:04:57Z (2 months ago)
Fix grammar error
- If I look at *my* `man 1 crontab`, it says that `crontab -n file` will test the suitability of _file_ as a parseable crontab file.
If I look at `man 1 crontab` on [Man7][] or [ManKier][], they both say that `-n` does something entirely different, and that `-T` is a linter.- 1. What gives?
2. Can run a command that actually performs the linting whichever system I'm on?- [man7]: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/crontab.1.html
- [mankier]: https://www.mankier.com/1/crontab
- If I look at *my* `man 1 crontab`, it says that `crontab -n file` will test the suitability of _file_ as a parseable crontab file.
- If I look at `man 1 crontab` on [Man7][] or [ManKier][], they both say that `-n` does something entirely different, and that it's `-T` for a linter.
- 1. What gives?
- 2. Can I run a command that actually performs the linting whichever system I'm on?
- [man7]: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/crontab.1.html
- [mankier]: https://www.mankier.com/1/crontab
#1: Initial revision
by
Michael
·
2026-07-06T00:03:28Z (2 months ago)
Why does crontab have different flags for its dry-run / linter mode?
If I look at *my* `man 1 crontab`, it says that `crontab -n file` will test the suitability of _file_ as a parseable crontab file. If I look at `man 1 crontab` on [Man7][] or [ManKier][], they both say that `-n` does something entirely different, and that `-T` is a linter. 1. What gives? 2. Can run a command that actually performs the linting whichever system I'm on? [man7]: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/crontab.1.html [mankier]: https://www.mankier.com/1/crontab