Blog 7

Do a little research and tell me a good reason you might use the crontab as root. How about a normal user?

You would use the root crontrab anytime you need to run a system-wide scheduled task at a regular interval. Like system-wide maintenance, database backups, corporate system backups. At NV Energy we have an area on the network to place files temporarily. Every Friday all the files get deleted. The root crontrab could be used for that.

A normal user could use their crontab to backup all their personal files or they could use it to send themselves an appointment reminder. Any repetitive task that you have to do on a regular basis would be a good candidate.