cron Error: bad username; while reading /etc/cron.d file on Linux

The “bad username” error message when reading the “/etc/cron.d” file on Linux typically occurs when the username specified in the cron job does not exist on the system. To resolve this issue, you can either:

  1. Correct the username in the cron job file:
# nano /etc/cron.d/your_cron_job_file
  1. Use a valid username that exists on your system. You can check the list of available users by running the following command:
# cat /etc/passwd
  1. If the cron job should run as the root user, use the username “root” instead.

Once you have corrected the username in the cron job file, save the changes and restart the cron service:

# service cron restart

This should resolve the “bad username” error and allow the cron job to run successfully.

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