How to List All Cron Jobs for All Users in Linux (crontab, cron.d and systemd Timers)

Updated: 9 October 2026 · Applies to: cron 3.0pl1 on Debian 13 and Ubuntu 26.04, cronie 1.7.0 on AlmaLinux 10 and cronie 1.5.7 on Rocky Linux 9 (all tested); systemd timers on Debian 13

To list your own cron jobs, run crontab -l. To see another user's jobs, run sudo crontab -l -u USERNAME. To view cron jobs for all users, you need more than one command, because jobs live in four places: each user's crontab, /etc/crontab, the files in /etc/cron.d/ and the cron.hourly, daily, weekly and monthly folders. Many systems also schedule tasks with systemd timers. The steps below check every one of them.

1. List your own cron jobs

$ crontab -l
0 4 * * * /root/cleanup.sh

If you have none, it prints no crontab for USERNAME and exits with code 1. To change the list, use crontab -e.

2. Show the cron jobs of one user

$ sudo crontab -l -u bob
# nightly report
30 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/report.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

This needs root. The order of the options does not matter: crontab -u bob -l works too.

3. Show cron jobs for all users

This loop asks crontab for every account and puts the user name in front of each job, leaving out comment lines:

$ sudo bash -c 'for u in $(getent passwd | cut -d: -f1); do crontab -l -u "$u" 2>/dev/null | grep -v "^#" | sed "s/^/$u: /"; done'
root: 0 4 * * * /root/cleanup.sh
alice: */15 * * * * /home/alice/bin/backup.sh
bob: 30 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/report.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

getent passwd also includes users from LDAP or another directory, which a plain read of /etc/passwd would miss. The loop worked the same way on Debian 13, Ubuntu 26.04, AlmaLinux 10 and Rocky Linux 9.

A quicker way is to read the crontab files directly. They live in a different folder per distribution:

sudo grep -v '^#' /var/spool/cron/crontabs/*    # Debian, Ubuntu
sudo grep -v '^#' /var/spool/cron/*             # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL

/var/spool/cron/crontabs/alice:*/15 * * * * /home/alice/bin/backup.sh
/var/spool/cron/crontabs/bob:30 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/report.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root:0 4 * * * /root/cleanup.sh

Only read these files. To change a job, use sudo crontab -e -u USERNAME, so cron notices the change and checks the syntax.

4. List the system-wide cron jobs

Jobs in /etc/crontab and /etc/cron.d/ have an extra field: the user the command runs as.

$ grep -v '^#' /etc/cron.d/*
/etc/cron.d/e2scrub_all:10 3 * * * root test -e /run/systemd/system || SERVICE_MODE=1 /sbin/e2scrub_all -A -r
/etc/cron.d/myapp:*/5 * * * * www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/app/cron.php

(Shortened.) Then look at /etc/crontab. The two families use it differently:

• Debian and Ubuntu: /etc/crontab runs the folders with run-parts, for example 17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly. The daily, weekly and monthly lines hand over to anacron when it is installed.
• AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux and RHEL: /etc/crontab holds only comments. Hourly jobs start from /etc/cron.d/0hourly (01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly), and /etc/anacrontab runs the daily, weekly and monthly folders between 03:00 and 22:00 with a random delay.

5. Check the hourly, daily, weekly and monthly folders

ls /etc/cron.hourly /etc/cron.daily /etc/cron.weekly /etc/cron.monthly

Every executable script in these folders is a job. On Debian and Ubuntu, ask run-parts which scripts will really run:

$ run-parts --test /etc/cron.daily
/etc/cron.daily/apt-compat
/etc/cron.daily/backup
/etc/cron.daily/dpkg
/etc/cron.daily/exim4-base
/etc/cron.daily/logrotate
/etc/cron.daily/man-db

In that test, the folder also held backup.sh, which is missing from the list: Debian's run-parts skips file names with a dot, so name the script backup, not backup.sh. On AlmaLinux 10, run-parts --list /etc/cron.daily did include backup.sh.

6. List systemd timers

Many packages now schedule their work as systemd timers instead of cron jobs:

$ systemctl list-timers --all
NEXT                             LEFT LAST PASSED UNIT                         ACTIVATES
(timer lines omitted)

Each line shows when a timer runs next, when it last ran and the service it starts. On Debian 13 we saw, among others, apt-daily.timer, logrotate.timer, man-db.timer, dpkg-db-backup.timer and fstrim.timer.

7. One-off jobs and background jobs

• at jobs: atq (or at -l) lists jobs queued with at. According to the at manual, root sees everybody's jobs and other users see only their own. Remove one with atrm NUMBER.
• Shell jobs: jobs -l shows the commands running in the background of your current terminal (started with & or paused with Ctrl+Z). They are not scheduled jobs.

Check that a cron job ran

journalctl -u cron --since today     # Debian, Ubuntu
journalctl -u crond --since today    # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux
sudo grep CROND /var/log/cron        # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux

Since Debian 12, rsyslog is no longer installed by default, so /var/log/syslog may not exist; the journal always works.

Cron jobs on shared hosting

On cPanel hosting you cannot run crontab for other users. Open cPanel › Advanced › Cron Jobs: your jobs are in the Current Cron Jobs table. On Virtualmin, according to the Virtualmin documentation, the jobs are under Webmin › System › Scheduled Cron Jobs. Our Acceptable Use Policy allows cron on shared and reseller hosting, with each job running no more often than every 15 minutes.

Related: how to read crontab syntax, how to add jobs to cron, how to schedule jobs with anacron and how to create a cron job in cPanel.