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# 1  
Old 05-27-2010
crontab help
I set up a simple echo script so I know its actually doing its job.
Code:
* * * * * echo hi >> /home/bob/Desktop/come

I have 3 video's I'm trying to play as a playlist at 8 am. I've checked in the terminal and as a regular script that this works fine. Right now I'm just trying to get it working so I'm using wildcards for the time and day. I tried it with sourcing and without sourcing in the crontab. Then I tried to run it as a regular script with no luck. I've checked that my script runs fine in the terminal. I also did this with sourcing and without sourcing. I really don't understand what I'm doing wrong so any help would be appreciated. Do I need to use shell scripts or is there something else I am doing wrong?
Code:
* * * * * . vlc -L /home/vids/vid1 /home/vids/vid2 /home/vids/vid3
* * * * * vlc -L /home/vids/vid1 /home/vids/vid2 /home/vids/vid3
* * * * * /home/bob/Desktop/yo
* * * * * . /home/bob/Desktop/yo

I have also checked the /etc/cron.deny and /etc/cron.allow and there are no problems in those files.

Moderator's Comments:
Mod Comment Please use code tags
Last edited by Scott; 05-27-2010 at 04:37 PM.. Reason: Code tags, please...
# 2  
Old 05-27-2010
Cron runs in a limited environment; Try using full paths.

E.g.:

Code:
0 8 * * * /usr/local/bin/vlc -L /somewhere/somevideo

Also have a look at this FAQ
# 3  
Old 05-27-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by verdepollo
Cron runs in a limited environment; Try using full paths.

E.g.:

Code:
0 8 * * * /usr/local/bin/vlc -L /somewhere/somevideo

Also have a look at this FAQ
You read my mind Smilie. Thats actually what I have been reading for the last 30 minutes. I just read that you can only source shell scripts so I will delete 2 lines and use full paths now. I also changed my yo script to use a full path and that didn't work either. Any other ideas? Should I try to use a shell script?

Code:
* * * * * /usr/bin/vlc -L /home/vids/vid1 /home/vids/vid2 /home/vids/vid3
* * * * * /home/bob/Desktop/yo

# 4  
Old 05-28-2010
Why dont you initialyze your need environment in the ( a) shellscript either by creating a env file to source or at the beginning or your script:
Code:
# The scron shellscript called...
. /<PATH to>/init_cron_env.file

#or
export BLABLA=...

...

I usually write a script to call all the jobs to be executed by cron in order to source or initalize, letting me the possibility to filter the outputs to different logfiles in a more verbous way and not polluting the cron logs
# 5  
Old 05-30-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by vbe
Why dont you initialyze your need environment in the ( a) shellscript either by creating a env file to source or at the beginning or your script:
Code:
# The scron shellscript called...
. /<PATH to>/init_cron_env.file

#or
export BLABLA=...

...

I usually write a script to call all the jobs to be executed by cron in order to source or initalize, letting me the possibility to filter the outputs to different logfiles in a more verbous way and not polluting the cron logs
I have no idea how to do what you are saying.
# 6  
Old 05-30-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by COKEDUDE
I've checked in the terminal and as a regular script that this works fine.
How did you exactly check in the terminal? How did you exactly call that script? Is it the script called yo?

Can you please additionally provide output of following commands?
Code:
cat /home/bob/Desktop/yo
ls -l `which echo`
ls -l `which vlc`

# 7  
Old 05-30-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by pseudocoder
How did you exactly check in the terminal? How did you exactly call that script? Is it the script called yo?

Can you please additionally provide output of following commands?
Code:
cat /home/bob/Desktop/yo
ls -l `which echo`
ls -l `which vlc`

Yes I did. I have a habit of giving my scripts silly file names so they are easy to remember.

Code:
cat /home/bob/Desktop/yo
#!/bin/bash -
/usr/bin/vlc -L /home/vids/vid1 /home/vids/vid2 /home/vids/vid3

ls -l `which echo`
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 30212 2010-03-04 22:29 /bin/echo
ls -l `which vlc`
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9644 2010-05-05 20:55 /usr/bin/vlc
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