What is /usr/bin/cron -f -P

General Help
1

Hello :smiley: I ahve the question: why is running procces /usr/bin/cron -f -P? I check on internet and i saw then this is for automaticly task in system but...i don't set any automatycli task in consol xD and i have the question: is system need this process?

2

I don't know exactly what this cron job controls. Certain settings - such as having updates displayed automatically or having software updates installed automatically - require such functions.
Perhaps you have set up automatic backups with a tool likeTimeshift or a similar program? They may also use cron.

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3

Using Brave A.I. search engine I entered the thread title which gave these two snippets of information:

  1. The path /usr/bin/cron does not correspond to the standard cron daemon executable; the main cron daemon is typically located at /usr/sbin/cron (or /usr/sbin/crond on some systems), while /usr/bin/crontab is the command used to manage user crontab files.

There is no standard flag combination -f -P for the cron daemon in the provided search context. The search results indicate that the cron daemon (cron or crond ) accepts specific options such as:

  • -n : Runs the daemon in the foreground (useful for testing).
  • -p : Allows any crontab file to be read, overriding the requirement that they be regular files or symlinks not writable by others.
  • -s : Sends cron job output to syslog instead of mail.
  • -m : Specifies a custom mail program or script instead of sendmail .

If you intended to run the daemon in the foreground for debugging, the correct command is typically /usr/sbin/cron -n (or crond -n ). The -f flag is not a recognized option for the cron daemon in the standard documentation provided.

  1. What does the cron -p flag do?

The -p flag for the cron daemon (crond ) overrides the default security restrictions on crontab files .

By default, crontab files must be:

  • Regular files or symlinks to regular files.
  • Not writable or executable by anyone other than the file owner.

The -p flag allows cron to accept crontab files that do not meet these requirements, such as files with different permissions, owners, or link counts.

4

i use timeshift but witouth automatic backup

5

ah yes, i have this process in sbin x)

6

sooo...this is ok? this is just listening? i don't understand.

I check crontab -l and my accounts and root(even process usr/sbin/cron -f -P is running as root) andi check chrontab -e and is nothin (of course are comments :3)

7

Brave A.I. is incorrect.

The -f flag means "Run in Foreground."
The -P flag instructs it to inherit the environment path which is more secure.

The path /usr/bin/cron is used by some configuration files and often symlinks to /usr/sbin/cron
Seeing it is perfectly normal as many system tasks are scheduled, often software update checks or other - even if the user did not specify any scheduled tasks.

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8

Thank you :smiley:

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