I never edit a crontab directly.  I use external files and reinstall them with &quot;crontab filename&quot; as needed.  Then of course the files can be revision-controlled.<p>Also, I name the files according to host so I remember exactly where they were installed in a networked environment (e.g. &quot;host1.crontab&quot;, &quot;host2.crontab&quot;).