Use /etc/cron.d Over Crontab.

A crontab file in a normal IDE and version-controlled, what a concept

Not all background jobs have to be in the main crontab (the one you see at EDITOR=vi crontab -e ). That crontab was all I ever knew, so the revelation of the /etc/cron.d directory was helpful, to say the least. Some benefits include:

1. Can separate different systems into different files
   (can’t edit /etc/cron.d/database_maintenance and accidentally screw up your stock algorithm, because that’s in /etc/cron.d/stonks )
2. Can install and update by script
   (crontab -e requires using an editor. It’s hard teaching someone how to exit an editor, never mind actually use one. Plus, who wants to sed their way through /etc/crontab? Gross.)
3. Can version-control your scheduling config
4. Can forget VIM forever
   (OK nerds, you can calm down now, it’s a joke)

When you make the transition, there are a few tricks you should know about:

Must Specify User

You may do this in other crontab entries, but it seems to be required for /etc/cron.d crontab snippets. I saw this on my Ubuntu machine and found FKEinternet’s great comment on the great /etc/cron.d StackExchange thread confirming the same behavior.

To do this, include a username after the 5 time specifiers, before the command. Example below specifies ubuntu: