Can not edit cronjobs file in Debian with crontab -e

Question

I have had several Debian servers and always edited cronjobs in this way:

crontab -e and Ctrl+x

Just got a new server and can not do it in this way anymore.

When I enter crontab -e, the file opens but I can't write anything. I can move cursor up and down but can't write. I even can not exit from this file because Ctr+x doesn't work.

When I open a file there is some information and the rest empty lines contain tildes ~ in the beginning of each line.

Any ideas how can I edit this file?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As one other person has suggested, vim is obviously the default editor on your new server. You can test this by running

EDITOR=pico crontab -e

Substituting whatever is your actual preferred editor (sounds like it may be nano or pico). If that works, you should try one of the following:

1. edit your login script to set that environment variable on login (sets the editor just for that user)
2. Make sure your favourite editor is is installed and run the following (as root): update-alternatives --config sensible-editor

You can then choose the default editor for all users (they can override it individually by doing option 1).

Answer 2

You need to turn on insert mode. After entering crontab -e, press i to turn on insert, enter your full line, press esc to finish entering, and then hold down shift and press z twice to save the file. This is how I managed to do it in vi/vim