Scheduled conntrack -F cron.err

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I have a scheduled task to run at midnight (in Luci):

00 00 * * * conntrack -F

It runs at the right time but appears to log an error:

Sun Apr 26 00:00:00 2026 cron.err crond[1808]: USER root pid 6262 cmd conntrack -F

Does this mean that the task failed? It looks pretty straightforward. Do I need more?

2

It’s fine. cron.err crond comes from the BusyBox implementation of crond.

3

But the conntrack -F would have executed successfully?

4

Yes, it executed successfully.

5

Was your conntrack table flushed at the appointed time?

6

I must admit that I don't know how to check. I am just looking for my time based firewall rule which rejects after midnight to happen quicker, as users with open sessions are often able to continue beyond.

7

Really?

You explained how:

So, did the sessions/users stop?

(This seems like a really easy check to me, since you insist on further inquiry about 'err'. Verifying your firewall will confirm the posts already explaining the log message.)

8

Thanks for your helpful response. We're all learning as we go…

9

I'm not sure if you're being facetious or if you were successfully able to check if the scheduled task worked. Just follow up and let us know if you have any other questions.

Indeed (we also can't guess each user's level of expertise, at the expense of insulting or over explaining).

10

Thanks again.

You're right - it is pretty simple.

Status / Realtime Graphs / Connections in Luci

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11

You're welcome.

(You could have also looked at the connect tracks too, they should be gone. You already knew the command, so I wasn't sure if you needed that information reiterated.)

12

Contrack minus capital L to list current sessions....
At least having looked briefly in the manual page should have helped