Linux Verify crond Daemon And Cronjobs Are Running

in CentOS, Debian / Ubuntu, Linux

Q. How do I verify or check cronjob is running or not under CentOS / RHEL / Fedora Linux from a shell prompt?

A. cron / crond is daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron). Usually, it is started automatically from /etc/init.d on entering multi-user runlevels.

RHEL / CentOS / Fedora Linux Verify Cron Service

You can simply use any one of the following command to see if crond is running or not, enter:
# pgrep crond
OR
# service crond status
Sample output:

crond (pid 4370) is running...

If it is not running type the following two command to start crond:
# chkconfig crond on

# service crond start
 
Verify cron is running by viewing log file, enter:
 
# tail -f /var/log/cron