illumos gate

It would be useful if the crontab command supported a -u username option to specify the username for the operation.

Without this, there is currently no easy way for root to replace a user's crontab, resulting in various tricks being employed such as:

                # Unfortunately, illumos cron does not allow for root to
                # easily replace a user's crontab, so we copy the file directly
                # into place and then edit the user's cron file with the
                # 'touch' editor a second later to cause cron to re-read.
                cp $file /var/spool/cron/crontabs/$user
                sleep 1
                env -i EDITOR=touch crontab -e $user

The -u option is also something that is common on other operating systems so adding it as a general flag will help with software portability and allow for removing workaround in various build systems (pkgsrc etc.) in the longer term.

Proposed new synopsis. Note that the three shipped copies of crontab will be updated with this change:

• /usr/bin/crontab
• /usr/xpg4/bin/crontab
• /usr/xpg6/bin/crontab

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/bin/crontab [-u username] [filename]

       /usr/bin/crontab { -e | -l | -r } [username]

       /usr/bin/crontab -u username { -e | -l | -r }

       /usr/xpg4/bin/crontab [filename]

       /usr/xpg4/bin/crontab { -e | -l | -r } [username]

       /usr/xpg4/bin/crontab -u username { -e | -l | -r }

       /usr/xpg6/bin/crontab [filename]

       /usr/xpg6/bin/crontab { -e | -l | -r } [username]

       /usr/xpg6/bin/crontab -u username { -e | -l | -r }