cron resource

Use the cron Chef InSpec audit resource to test the Crontab entries of a particular user on the system. You can also use this resource as an alias to the crontab resource.

Availability

Installation

This resource is distributed with Chef InSpec.

Parameters

user

(optional) This parameter tests the cron entries of a particular user. By default, it refers to the current user.

Properties

Table

The table property checks whether a particular cron entry matches the specific regex.

its(:table) { should match /regex/ }

Syntax

A cron resource block declares a user (which defaults to the current user).

describe cron do
  its(:table) { should match /regex/ }
end

describe cron(user: "USER") do
 it { should have_entry "5 * * * * /some/scheduled/task.sh" }
end

Examples

The following examples show how to use this audit resource.

Test to ensure crontab has a particular cron entry for the current user

describe cron do
  it { should have_entry "5 * * * * /some/scheduled/task.sh" }
end

Test to ensure a user’s crontab has a particular cron entry

describe cron('MY_USER') do
  it { should have_entry "5 * * * * /some/scheduled/task.sh" }
end

Test to verify if crontab has entries that run every 5 minutes

describe cron do
  its(:table) { should match /^5/ }
end

Matchers

For a full list of the available matchers, please visit our matchers page.

it { should have_entry("5 * * * * /some/scheduled/task.sh") }