cron on 10.5.2 server

I still don¹t know how to create a crontab in the standard way.  Crontab 
­e produces the following output:
 
$ crontab ­e
create entry
ZZ to exit
crontab: no crontab for rbp - using an empty one
crontab: temp file must be edited in place

However, it works properly on my wife's 10.5.2 client and my 10.4.11 
client.  Something seems not to be set correctly.

I have found a work-around.
 
   1. Create a file of cron commands, cronfile.
   2. crontab cronfile
 
Any time you want to update your crontab, you need to edit the local 
file and use step 2 again.  This works.
 
BTW, once an actual crontab is created, the crontab ­e sequence only 
produces the second line of the error message.
 
Although I can now function, I would still like to know why this doesn't 
work. The man page doesn't even mention these errors and I am totally at 
sea on this.

Oh, BTW, while cron works on 10.5.2 server, each command that runs 
leaves an error message in /var/log/system.log, so although it is 
working, it isn't working quite right.  This has been mentioned by 
others so it is not unique to my installation.

-- 
Robert B. Peirce, Venetia, PA  724-941-6883
bob AT peirce-family.com [Mac]
rbp AT cooksonpeirce.com [Office]