crontab: error renaming /var/spool/cron/tmp.XXXXkY5ZHV to /var/spool/cron/root

[Dipak Bhoi]

Hello folks,

One of our client was facing below error while editing a crontab.

root@X [/tmp]# crontab -e
crontab: installing new crontab
crontab: error renaming /var/spool/cron/tmp.XXXXDSGEDV to /var/spool/cron/root
rename: Operation not permitted
crontab: edits left in /tmp/crontab.xO3YcB

After investigating on it, I found that file /var/spool/cron/root has a chattr set.

#lsattr /var/spool/cron/root
-u--ia-------e- /var/spool/cron/root

To resolve this error, you need to remove this chattr.

# chattr -aui /var/spool/cron/root

Now try to edit crontab, it should work fine.

# crontab -e
crontab: installing new crontab

That's all. Enjoy ..!!