Amazon Linux 2023 does not contain /etc/cron.d folder

Question

Amazon Linux 2023 does not contain "/etc/cron.d" folder. Our application need to add few services installed in this folder. It was supported in Linux 1 and 2. 
I am running the below command to create the "cron.d" folder in Amazon Linux 2023.
"sudo yum install cronie -y"
Is this an acceptable workaround? Will this folder no longer be part of any future releases?
Please suggest.
Thanks
Arahanth

Accepted Answer

That's completely correct.

AL2023 doesn't contain a scheduler by default, and installing `cronie` gives you a scheduler, and puts in place the directory structure you are looking for.

```
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Amazon Linux"
VERSION="2023"
ID="amzn"
ID_LIKE="fedora"
VERSION_ID="2023"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:al2023"
PRETTY_NAME="Amazon Linux 2023"
ANSI_COLOR="0;33"
CPE_NAME="cpe:2.3:o:amazon:amazon_linux:2023"
HOME_URL="https://aws.amazon.com/linux/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/amazonlinux/amazon-linux-2023"
SUPPORT_END="2028-03-01"
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$ ls -l /etc/cron.d
ls: cannot access '/etc/cron.d': No such file or directory
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$ rpm -qa | grep cron
crontabs-1.11-24.20190603git.amzn2023.0.2.noarch
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$ sudo yum install -y cronie
Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:07 ago on Tue Aug  8 07:09:30 2023.
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================
 Package                  Architecture     Version                          Repository             Size
========================================================================================================
Installing:
 cronie                   x86_64           1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2             amazonlinux           115 k
Installing dependencies:
 cronie-anacron           x86_64           1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2             amazonlinux            32 k

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================
Install  2 Packages

Total download size: 147 k
Installed size: 341 k
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): cronie-anacron-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64.rpm                   488 kB/s |  32 kB     00:00
(2/2): cronie-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64.rpm                           1.4 MB/s | 115 kB     00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                   1.0 MB/s | 147 kB     00:00
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                1/1
  Installing       : cronie-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64                                             1/2
  Running scriptlet: cronie-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64                                             1/2
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/crond.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/crond.service.

Installing       : cronie-anacron-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64                                     2/2
  Running scriptlet: cronie-anacron-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64                                     2/2
  Verifying        : cronie-anacron-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64                                     1/2
  Verifying        : cronie-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64                                             2/2

Installed:
  cronie-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64             cronie-anacron-1.5.7-1.amzn2023.0.2.x86_64

Complete!
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$ !ls
ls -l /etc/cron.d
total 4
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 128 Jan 30  2023 0hourly
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$ rpm -ql cronie
/etc/cron.d
/etc/cron.d/0hourly
/etc/cron.deny
/etc/pam.d/crond
/etc/sysconfig/crond
/lib/systemd/system/crond.service
/usr/bin/cronnext
/usr/bin/crontab
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/77
/usr/lib/.build-id/77/ce0dc802519e6ddb9035f2b7c701de7ae14e75
/usr/lib/.build-id/af
/usr/lib/.build-id/af/01cc35016f7f1f78bcc21e177464c69919e276
/usr/lib/.build-id/f2
/usr/lib/.build-id/f2/f5a5adc27bf01a7232269c77d07796a9f792e9
/usr/sbin/crond
/usr/share/doc/cronie
/usr/share/doc/cronie/AUTHORS
/usr/share/doc/cronie/ChangeLog
/usr/share/doc/cronie/README
/usr/share/licenses/cronie
/usr/share/licenses/cronie/COPYING
/usr/share/man/man1/cronnext.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/crontab.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/crontab.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/cron.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/crond.8.gz
/var/spool/cron
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-34-136 ~]$
```

Answer

Hi,

As described on the following [amazon-linux-2023 Github repository issue](https://github.com/amazonlinux/amazon-linux-2023/issues/300), they have decided not to include in the AMIs in AL2023 as the same (in fact, better) functionality is provided by systemd.

> It's one of the components we have decided not to include in the AMIs in AL2023 as the same (in fact, better) functionality is provided by `systemd`. The functionality of `systemd` timers (see https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.timer.html ) is a superset of what you could do with cron, including powerful functionality around timing accuracy and resource control. Timer accuracy and jitter can be important to avoid thundering herd problems in larger clusters of systems.

Answer

Hello.  
Yes, if you want to use cron in the same way as before, installing cronie would be the best way to handle this.  
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ja_jp/linux/al2023/release-notes/all-packages-AL2023.1.html

If you want to run scripts, etc. periodically without installing anything, you can do so by setting systemd's timer.  
https://manpages.debian.org/testing/systemd/systemd.timer.5.en.html

Amazon Linux 2023 does not contain /etc/cron.d folder

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