Re: [tlug] Crontab not executing

[Scott Robbins <scottro@example.com>]

On Sun, Mar 25, 2007 at 08:45:35AM +0900, Dave M G wrote:
> TLUG,
> 
> I have a shell script that I want to run once daily at 12 PM (noon) every day. 
> The shell script is of my own creation, and it works when I execute it from the 
> command line.
> 
> However, it's not successfully being executed by cron.
> 
> Here is what I put into my crontab file:
> 
> 0 12 * * * sh /home/dave/myShellScript.sh
> 
> Have I messed up my syntax or something?

As I think you know, cron has a very short default $PATH, just /usr/bin/
and /usr/sbin/ /bin and /sbin, I think. 

(This varies by O/S, but usually, it's something like those 4.)

So, almost everything needs its full path. 
For example, on FreeBSD, both sudo and rysnc are in /usr/local/bin.

If my crontab is /usr/home/scottro/bin/rsyncbkup.sh and that shell
contains the commands sudo and/or rsync, what do you think will happen?

The script itself has to contain the full paths, e.g

/usr/local/bin/sudo /usr/local/bin/rsync cp full/path/to_whatever
full/pathto_newplace/

(cp is in /usr/bin, so I don't have to give its full path.)

So, check the commands in your script and make sure that they're in
cron's $PATH or that you have the full path to each command in the
script. 

In FreeBSD, at least, the default $PATH for cron is shown in
/etc/crontab.

-- 

Scott Robbins

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