Shell Programming and Scripting

Make it:
#! /usr/bin/ksh

Thanks, i'll give it a go. Thing is, all the existing scripts that are running on cron use '!/bin/ksh' and seem to run fine. I can't imagine why this one would be any different... :/

That is odd. What OS are you using? Do those other scripts attempt a
variable=$(command)
construct?

Put a line like:
ps -fp $$ > /tmp/ps.bad
in one of them. And put a line like:
ps -fp $$ > /tmp/ps.good
in this one or another with the correct first line. And post the contents of both files.

OK, I think I know what's going wrong! The script I'm running on cron reads from a .csv file which is held in the 'scripts' directory. The script executes fine when run manually from the scripts directory because that's where the csv file is held. BUT... I haven't pointed the script in the direction of the file (simple declared it) so when it runs on cron, it can't find the csv file.

Thanks for your help, you guys really know your stuff! Just to double check, if I want to use a file held in another directory do I declare it like this:

file="/home/dir1/dir2/logs.csv"

//.. do something with file.. //

Is this syntax correct?

Hmmm.. I feel like I missed a couple episodes of Dark Shadows or something. But oh well...

Yeah, that syntax looks good.

lol, nm... The problem wasn't with the date but to do with cron not being able to find a file which the script was using. The syntax worked and the script ran successfully for the first time last night!

Thanks again for all your replies... I've learned so much already from these forums. Keep up the good work!