Restarting cron after changing crontab file?

Question

Do I have to restart cron after changing the crontable file?

Answer 1

My understanding is, "no" for most modern distros, although the frequency of crontab file(s) update-check may vary, updates should be reloaded by the cron service "in short order".

If you want to be absolutely sure (and for good luck), you can do something like this:

sudo service cron reload

... assuming you have admin/sudo rights.