How to Verify Limited crontab Accesss

To verify whether or not a specific user can access crontab, use the crontab -l command while logged into the user account.

$ crontab -l

If the user can access crontab, and already has created a crontab file, it will be displayed. Otherwise, if the user can access crontab but no crontab file exists, a message like the following will be displayed:

crontab: can't open your crontab file

This user either is listed in cron.allow (if it exists), or is not listed in cron.deny.

If the user cannot access crontab, the following message is displayed whether or not a previous crontab file exists:

crontab: you are not authorized to use cron. Sorry.

This means either that the user is not listed in cron.allow (if it exists), or the user is listed in cron.deny.