From b7e6a77ef5c90f7e7aa3fe096927a12d7a5a9583 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Matthias Johnson <matthias@opennomad.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:02:20 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Accept spaces or tabs as field separators in edit mode

Parse crontab lines by splitting on the first two whitespace
boundaries via regex, so both spaces and tabs work as delimiters.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 systab | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/systab b/systab
index 3e418e0..b3f9882 100755
--- a/systab
+++ b/systab
@@ -388,9 +388,9 @@ edit_jobs() {
     {
         cat <<'HEADER'
 # systab jobs — edit schedule/command, add/remove lines
-# Format: ID	SCHEDULE	COMMAND
+# Format: ID  SCHEDULE  COMMAND  (whitespace-separated)
 # Lines starting with # are ignored. Remove a line to delete a job.
-# Add a line with "new" as ID to create a job: new	daily	/path/to/cmd
+# Add a line with "new" as ID to create a job: new  daily  /path/to/cmd
 #
 # Schedule formats (systemd OnCalendar):
 #   hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly
@@ -449,29 +449,34 @@ HEADER
         fi
     done < <(get_managed_timers)
 
+    # Parse a crontab line into id, sched, cmd (split on first two whitespace runs)
+    parse_crontab_line() {
+        local line="$1"
+        _parsed_id="" _parsed_sched="" _parsed_cmd=""
+        if [[ "$line" =~ ^([^[:space:]]+)[[:space:]]+([^[:space:]]+)[[:space:]]+(.*) ]]; then
+            _parsed_id="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+            _parsed_sched="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
+            _parsed_cmd="${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
+        fi
+    }
+
     # Parse original file
     while IFS= read -r line; do
         [[ "$line" =~ ^#.*$ || -z "$line" ]] && continue
-        local id sched cmd
-        id=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -f1)
-        sched=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -f2)
-        cmd=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -f3-)
-        [[ -n "$id" && -n "$sched" ]] || continue
-        orig_jobs["$id"]="${sched}	${cmd}"
+        parse_crontab_line "$line"
+        [[ -n "$_parsed_id" && -n "$_parsed_sched" ]] || continue
+        orig_jobs["$_parsed_id"]="${_parsed_sched}	${_parsed_cmd}"
     done < "$orig_file"
 
     # Parse edited file
     while IFS= read -r line; do
         [[ "$line" =~ ^#.*$ || -z "$line" ]] && continue
-        local id sched cmd
-        id=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -f1)
-        sched=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -f2)
-        cmd=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -f3-)
-        [[ -n "$id" && -n "$sched" ]] || continue
-        if [[ "$id" == "new" ]]; then
-            new_jobs+=("${sched}	${cmd}")
+        parse_crontab_line "$line"
+        [[ -n "$_parsed_id" && -n "$_parsed_sched" ]] || continue
+        if [[ "$_parsed_id" == "new" ]]; then
+            new_jobs+=("${_parsed_sched}	${_parsed_cmd}")
         else
-            edited_jobs["$id"]="${sched}	${cmd}"
+            edited_jobs["$_parsed_id"]="${_parsed_sched}	${_parsed_cmd}"
         fi
     done < "$temp_file"