[Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

Gen2ly · 2009-08-24 11:21:19

I'm guessing this is for checking by crontab (why cron doesn' t use the user's default .vimrc file), but is it safe/possible to use the user's vimrc. If yes, how can I do it?

Last edited by Gen2ly (2009-08-26 10:45:08)

sand_man · 2009-08-24 23:31:28

It does.
Maybe you are doing, sudo crontab -e, that would mean that root doesn't have a .vimrc set.

Profjim · 2009-08-25 02:21:38

Yeah, you could copy or link your user .vimrc to /root. Alternatively, after doing sudo crontab -e, you could (inside vim) type

:so ~myusername/.vimrc

Gen2ly · 2009-08-25 05:49:19

Hmm, I'm using crontab as regular user and have a .vimrc in the home folder. :so ~myusername/.vimrc does load my ~/.vimrc. Really be useful to have it loaded on 'crontab -d' as I use it quite a bit. It appears that cron is somehow discarding or ignoring my default .vimrc. Kinda at a loss at what's causing this.

Last edited by Gen2ly (2009-08-25 05:51:27)

foutrelis · 2009-08-25 05:59:16

I'm not sure, but I think crontab executes `vi' by default (which consults .virc instead). To verify that this is the case, try setting EDITOR=vim when running `crontab' like this:

EDITOR=vim crontab -e

If it works properly with the above command, you'll probably want to make this change permanent by adding the following to your ~/.bashrc:

export EDITOR=vim

EDIT: If the above doesn't work, you can try symlinking .vimrc to .virc.

EDIT2: I had a quick look at dcron's source code for crontab. It checks the VISUAL environment variable and not the EDITOR, defaulting to "/usr/bin/vi" if that's not set. Therefore, `export VISUAL=vim' in ~/.bashrc should do it.

Last edited by foutrelis (2009-08-25 06:21:01)

Profjim · 2009-08-25 06:37:35

Yes, the crontab in the stock dcron only looks at VISUAL, not EDITOR. So you need to "export VISUAL=vim" or call crontab with:

VISUAL=vim crontab -e

I just released a fork of dcron which looks at EDITOR first, then at VISUAL. But as useful as I think my improvements are, I can't really say this would by itself justify switching.

Last edited by Profjim (2009-08-25 06:39:34)

Gen2ly · 2009-08-26 07:12:28

Oh, yeah, that did it. Never heard of VISUAL, hmm. EDITOR, PAGER, VISUAL, lol not even sure what visual would do. No matter. Appreciate the help, editing alot easier now.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-08-24 11:21:19

[Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

#2 2009-08-24 23:31:28

Re: [Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

#3 2009-08-25 02:21:38

Re: [Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

#4 2009-08-25 05:49:19

Re: [Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

#5 2009-08-25 05:59:16

Re: [Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

#6 2009-08-25 06:37:35

Re: [Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

#7 2009-08-26 07:12:28

Re: [Solved] crontab to use .vimrc

Board footer