[plug] problems with cron

[Matt Kemner]

> Have I got my syntax wrong in the following crontab entry?
> 
> 05,10,15,20,25,30,35,45,50,55,59  * * * * root /root/bin/daemonsup

Looks ok to me
With recent cron daemons you can do

*/5 * * * * root /root/bin/daemonsup

to achieve the same thing
 
> It doesn't seem to be running the script when necessary, I have tested
> the script and it works fine.

Does the script run any commands that are in your path but may not be in
the cron daemon's path?
Try using fully-qualified pathnames for all the commands in the script.

>  I have done /etc/init.d/cron restart
> after each edit.

You shouldn't need to do that.
Cron re-checks /etc/crontab every minute for new entries.

The personal cron files should be edited with "crontab -e" which will
notify cron of the updates anyway.

 - Matt