Linux / Unix - crontab: no crontab for user using an empty one error and solution

The "no crontab for user using an empty one" error can occur when you try to edit the crontab file for a user using the crontab -e command, and the user does not have an existing crontab file.

To fix this error and create an empty crontab file for the user, you can use the crontab -e command with the -u option to specify the user for which you want to create the crontab file.

For example, to create an empty crontab file for the user testuser, you can use the following command:

crontab -u testuser -e

This will open the crontab file for the testuser user in a text editor, allowing you to add cron jobs to the file.

Keep in mind that the crontab command can only be used by the root user or the user for whom the crontab file is being edited. If you are not the root user or the correct user, you will need to use the sudo command to run the crontab command with the appropriate privileges.

For example, to create an empty crontab file for the testuser user as the root user, you can use the following command:

sudo crontab -u testuser -e

This will open the crontab file for the testuser user in a text editor, allowing you to add cron jobs to the file.