UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi,

I am trying to run a shell script using the crontab scheduler, and I am redirecting the log of the script output to some temp log file using the following command.

Code:

sh somescript.sh 1> /location/somefile.log

Evrytime the cronjob triggers this script, It creates a zero byte file in the location specified. I also tried with

Code:

sh somescript.sh > /location/somefile.log

But no luck. If I run a simple command like

Code:

rm -rf <somefile>

then this command is running sucessfully by cron. But why is it not creating the log of the script that has been run? Any help will be higly appreciated.

It would help if you post the entry in your crontab that is not working. Do you see any errors in the system-logfile?

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Thank You.

The UNIX and Linux Forums

---------- Post updated at 13:56 ---------- Previous update was at 13:55 ----------

Unless your script resides in /root, cron won't find it. Put it into the crontab using the absolute path and see if it works.

You should use absolute path, unless you have the PATH variable defined.

We have it specified in lot of places such as
ping from cron

1) In most unixes the errors will be in root mail .
2) As suggested above, refer to the script name by absolute path unless the script happens to be in the limited default path available in cron.
3) There may also be need to set PATH in the script or refer to commands by absolute path,
4) You don't need the "sh " in front of the command. cron defaults to "sh".
5) If you want to capture all output from the script you will need to redirect the error channel too.

Suggested outline for the command field in the crontab line:

Code:

/absolute_path_to_script/somescript.sh 2>&1> /location/somefile.log