I have thrown a bunch of darts trying to get a python script of mine to execute every minute. So I thought I'd simplify it to just do the "simplest thing that could could possibly work" once per minute (I'm running debian/testing).

I created a single line file in /etc/cron.d/perminute:

* * * * * /bin/touch /home/me/ding_dong

It's owned by root, and executable (not sure if either of those matter). And then I did:

sudo service cron reload

And then sit back and start running ls -ltr again and again in my home directory (/home/me). But my ding_dong file never shows up. I know if I do a sudo /bin/touch /home/me/ding_dong, it shows up right away.

Obviously missing something stupid here.