FreeBSD 13 – cron jobs do not run due to service disabled state – Fix & Prevention

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Backups, cleanup, and monitoring scripts stop running, creating operational drift.

Environment & Reproduction

Often appears after minimal install baselines or rc.conf cleanup.

service cron status
crontab -l
ls -l /etc/crontab

Root Cause Analysis

cron daemon is disabled or failing at startup due to configuration/permission issues.

Quick Triage

Check daemon state, config syntax, and recent execution logs.

sysrc cron_enable
service cron onestatus
grep -i cron /var/log/messages | tail -n 50

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Validate crontab files and test with a short interval probe job.

crontab -l
awk 'NF && $1 !~ /^#/' /etc/crontab
echo '* * * * * /usr/bin/date >> /tmp/cron_probe.log' | crontab -

Solution – Primary Fix

Enable and start cron, then deploy corrected schedules.

sysrc cron_enable="YES"
service cron start
service cron status

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Use periodic(8) framework for standard maintenance jobs.

sysrc daily_clean_hoststat_enable="YES"
periodic daily

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Scheduled jobs execute on time and logs show expected task output.

sleep 65; tail -n 5 /tmp/cron_probe.log
grep -i cron /var/log/messages | tail -n 20

Rollback Plan

Revert cron entries and disable daemon if maintenance windows require freeze.

crontab -r
sysrc cron_enable="NO"
service cron stop

Prevention & Hardening

Monitor heartbeat jobs and keep cron configuration under source control.

crontab -l > /root/cron-baseline.txt

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Linked to mail delivery issues for cron output and permission-denied script paths.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for FreeBSD 13.

View all FreeBSD 13 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

FreeBSD cron and periodic administration references.