[Linux query] - cron daemon vanishing

["Colin Price (EML)" <Colin Price eml ericsson se>]

I have a curious problem. The cron daemon seems to vanish for no reason. I wish I could be more specific. I changed some cron entries this morning, but could it be something to with that (I mean, this is still nothing to do with the background process, is it?).

I believe the only thing I have to monitor cron's progress is /var/log/cron (see below for extract). Is there anything else?

I used to know of a gotcha involving cron using the same port 21 as ftp for something or other. Does anyone remember this or does anyone know of anything else that affects the cron daemon? Any help, pointers in the right direction or documentation would be appreciated.

Also, I have re-checked all my progs that are ran from cron. None seem to be problematic.

Linux version : Red Hat 5.2
	$ uname -a
	Linux inbasdev5 2.2.1 #3 Wed Feb 10 13:29:12 GMT 1999 i686 unknown 

The /var/log/cron looks like :
	====================================================================================
	root (08/31-09:01:00-6380) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
	root (08/31-09:18:04-6466) LIST (root)
	root (08/31-09:18:23-6467) LIST (root)
	root (08/31-09:19:18-6472) REPLACE (root)
	root (08/31-09:19:21-6473) LIST (root)
	root (08/31-09:20:00-260) RELOAD (cron/root)
	root (08/31-10:01:00-6552) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
	root (08/31-10:05:00-6590) CMD ($HOME/TSbackup/bin/adminHourly 2>&1 > /dev/null)
	root (08/31-10:16:38-6620) LIST (root)
	root (08/31-10:17:41-6623) LIST (root)
	root (08/31-10:18:09-6626) REPLACE (root)
	root (08/31-10:18:11-6627) LIST (root)
	root (08/31-10:19:00-260) RELOAD (cron/root)
	root (08/31-11:01:01-6839) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
	root (08/31-11:05:00-6894) CMD ($HOME/TSbackup/bin/adminHourly 2>&1 > /dev/null)
.........	here is where it die'd.
		so I restarted it.
	root (08/31-13:38:07-7318) LIST (root)
	CRON (08/31-13:42:21-7342) STARTUP (fork ok)
	root (08/31-14:01:00-7418) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
	root (08/31-14:05:00-7456) CMD ($HOME/TSbackup/bin/adminHourly 2>&1 > /dev/null
	====================================================================================

Thanks in advance,
Colin.