cron vi Edit

Q:  Why won't the entry on the last line of of my /etc/crontab or /etc/crontab.local file not execute?  I'm certain the syntax is correct (I can execute the same command from a shell).

A:  You've probably used the Edit program to add the last line of crontab or crontab.local.  The cron program is very sensitive to the format of these files.  If there is not a newline character following the last line, cron will not execute the last line.  The solution is to edit the file by placing the cursor after the last character and pressing the Return key.  Note that vi does not exhibit this behavior (it automatically places a newline in the correct place).

QA831

Valid for 1.0
Valid for 2.0
Valid for 3.0, 3.1