UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,

I having a very unknown problem. I set my process to cronjob but it does not work at all!!!!!!No error detected, just nothing....


Cron:
15 * * * * /process/directory/path/$processname.sh

Script($processname.sh):
nohup $process &



Please help. I have no idea at all.

Thanks!

Hi Clemot,
Does your script name/path actually have a $ in it? That could be an issue, I have never tried it but I would think your system would try to interpret $processname.sh as a variable.
If that is not the case and you can run the script manually, I suggest modifying your crontab to something like this:

15 * * * * /process/directory/path/$processname.sh >> /path/to/log/logfile.log 2>&1

This will create a logfile in what ever path you specify and echo both STDOUT and STDERR to the log. This should give you some clues as to why it is not working. You just have to wait until 15 after the next hour to find out, unless you want to change the time to run closer to when you are working on it.
TioTony

I just had a similar problem on SuSE Linux. The man page makes reference to an allow and deny file. On my system they are located at <b>/var/spool/cron</b> The deny file is supposed to deny only those who can't use cron and allow all others. I found that when I deleted the deny and made an allow file with root in it that I was able to run cron from the root. For a large amount of users I think this solution is very poor, but if it's just for a PC try it out.

From the man page on Solaris 8:

<b> Users: Access to crontab is denied:

o if /etc/cron.d/cron.allow exists and the user's name
is not in it.

o if /etc/cron.d/cron.allow does not exist and user's
name is in /etc/cron.d/cron.deny.

o if neither file exists.

Note that the rules for allow and deny apply to root only if
the allow/deny files exist.

The allow/deny files consist of one user name per line.</b>

(On my SuSE box the location is <b>/var/spool/cron</b> but the man page reads pretty much the same).

According to this my SuSE box should have only denied the users in the deny file (guest and nobody). Even root on my SuSE box could not use cron without being placed into allow. I'm not sure why but I have never had this problem on Solaris.