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# 1  
Old 07-26-2010
cron
I have been trying to run a chron command without success. I want to run a program twice daily. First, can I type in the code directly into the command line or do I need to write a shell script and execute the script? I was trying to type a sample script before the real one. My sample script would run 5 minutes from the current time once daily. Assuming it is 4:22pm this is what my code would say

Code:
  27 16 * * * sh /share/user/testbatch.sh | crontab

When I type that directly into the command line, this is what I get.
Code:
[rhuff@server working]$ 27 16 * * * sh /share/user/testbatch.sh | crontab
27: Command not found.

I tried using echo and putting it in single quotes but that doesn't seem to work either.
Last edited by libertyforall; 07-31-2010 at 01:26 AM..
# 2  
Old 07-26-2010
Look at the man page for 'crontab'

'crontab -e' to edit the crontab
'crontab -l' to list the contents of your crontab

Quote:
27 16 * * * sh /share/huina/rhuff/hysplit/hysplit/kilauea/working/testbatch.sh
This entry is fine but if your shell script is set to be executable, you don't need the 'sh' at the start.
# 3  
Old 07-26-2010
I would test it like this:
Code:
sh /share/huina/rhuff/hysplit/hysplit/kilauea/working/testbatch.sh

And make it a cron job like this. (If you need sh, you should give the whole path.)
Code:
echo '27 16 * * * /bin/sh /share/huina/rhuff/hysplit/hysplit/kilauea/working/testbatch.sh' | crontab

(Of course, that will wipe out any other cron jobs you have already added.)
# 4  
Old 07-27-2010
OK. I tried it and it still didn't work. This is what I did below. As you can see, I dropped the sh and it still looks like its reading the minutes as a command. I then used the echo and quotes but it did not run at the specified time. The test script simply echo's AM or PM depending on the time of day. The test script itself runs fine; I just can get it to run using chrontab. Any ideas?

Code:
[user@server dir]$ cd working
[user@server dir2]$ 25 17 * * * /share/user/testbatch.sh | crontab
25: Command not found.
[user@server dir2]$ echo '23 17 * * * /bin/sh /share/user/testbatch.sh' | crontab
[user@server dir2]$ 26 17 * * * /bin/sh /share/user/testbatch.sh | crontab
26: Command not found.
[user@server dir2]$ sh testbatch.sh
PM
[user@server dir2]$ sh /share/user/testbatch.sh
PM
[user@server dir2]$ echo '29 17 * * * /bin/sh /share/user/testbatch.sh' | crontab
[user@server dir2]$

Last edited by libertyforall; 07-31-2010 at 01:29 AM..
# 5  
Old 07-27-2010
Your third and last lines probably did work. To see what cron jobs you currently have scheduled, run the command
crontab -l

When you pipe it (with '|') to cron, you are actually writing a one line file to standard input of cron. That's not just a command, it a configuration file. The numbers and asterisks are the date and time.

But when you run it directly on the command line, you must not type the date and time. Bash was trying to execute "25" and "26" as commands.
# 6  
Old 07-27-2010
Configuration file.
OK. I see this now. If I type it directly into the command line, how would I specify the dates?

Also, when I tried to edit the configuration file it looks likes its in vi which I have difficulty with. Is it possible to use a different editor such as emacs, and if so, how?

Finally, it looks like I can only have one cronjob file running since my other files get overwritten when I type in a new cronjob command. If I want to run more than one cronjob, would I have to have all the cronjobs on one file? If so, How would I do that? Thanks.
# 7  
Old 07-27-2010
Quote:
Also, when I tried to edit the configuration file it looks likes its in vi which I have difficulty with. Is it possible to use a different editor such as emacs, and if so, how?
Yes, this is done by setting the EDITOR variable

Code:
$ export EDITOR=emacs
$ crontab -e
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