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I am writing a python program to go on the raspberry pi. I am currently making an installation script that will as part of its installation process, add a line on cron so that it will automatically startup on bootup.
I need access to the whole file, not just adding a line at the end. As I want the ability to uninstall the program, which will in part remove the line in the crontab.
Like most Debian based systems, the crontab is stored in /var/spool/cron/crontabs
On a different note: Why are you trying to start your program using crontab? This is neither a good nor a standard practice. If you're going through the effort of writing an installer, you should be using an init script so that the user has the ability to issue start/stop/restart commands as needed.
/var/spool is used for per-user crontabs. The system jobs are in /etc/cron.d and also /etc/cron.[hourly|daily|monthly].
sudo crontab -e, so for root, the crontab is stored here: /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root. Probably /etc/cron* is used for systemd only.
cronhas been around for decades (the version used in Raspbian is I think older than the WWW) and is extensively documented. I will give you a quick clue by citing the 3rd paragraph inman crontab: "...system cron jobs in the /etc/cron.d/ directory".