This was fixed in -121. ** Changed in: cron (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Fix Released
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to cron in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1110147 Title: Error in manual Status in cron package in Ubuntu: Fix Released Bug description: The manual for crontab(5) shows various examples of using the date command as such: $(date +%u) This contradicts the note specifying that any % sign needs to be escaped Entering something like that as a command for execution fails to interpret anything past the % sign. so, for example: * * * * * echo $(date +%Y) fails with /bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting ")") The syslog shows this CRON[10104]: (root) CMD (echo $(date +) Simply escaping the % resolves it, so in this example, the manual should be updated so that each 'date' example looks as $(date +\%u) - or whatever the format character example is. My example cron from above executes as expected as * * * * * echo $(date +\%Y) which send me an email simply with "2013" To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cron/+bug/1110147/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp