How to view a cron job running currently?

Question

I have a cron job set up for daily execution (on my own ubuntu, just for trial) like so:

0 0 * * * /path/exec.sh

It is been set for daily execution. I usually open my machine around 8a.m. I would like to find out
- what time my cron job ran, if it has already run ?
- I would also like to see if any of my cron job is running at the moment?

Is there a way to find out IF a cron job is actually running at the moment?

Answer 1

to check if cron is actually running anything at this moment in time (works on ubuntu)

pstree -apl `pidof cron`

and you'll either get

2775,cron # your pid (2775) will be different to mine :-)

or a tree output with all the child processes that cron is running (it may not name them if you don't have sufficient privileges) and as Hamoriz says the logs are in /var/log/syslog so

grep CRON /var/log/syslog

will get you the logs just for cron

Answer 2

I would also like to see if any of my cron job is running at the moment?

ps aux |grep "path/exec.sh"

what time my cron job ran ?

Cron log only show when start task off crond, not log when end. You need put this on your task or embedded your task en one scritp with control time of start and end.

if it has already run ?

cat /path/logs/messages or /path/logs/file when your system put logs of crond (this depends on your distribution settings or your computer)