UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I trying to include a script in my crontab as user. I used "crontab -e" to include my script there but does not seem to work. If I understand correctly it is set to run at 11:20 every day, correct?
Can anybody identify any error?

<pre>

#Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.7 Generic October 1998
$ pwd
/home/oracle
$ whoami
oracle
$ ls -l |grep CLFY
-rw-r--r-- 1 oracle dba 36803584 Nov 7 11:29 CLFY_071101.dmp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 oracle dba 162 Nov 6 15:41 exp_CLFY_script
$ crontab -l
20 11 * * * /home/oracle/exp_CLFY_script

$ more /home/oracle/exp_CLFY_script
#!/bin/sh

CUR_DATE=`date '+%d%m%y'`
exp sa/sa@CLFY file=/home/oracle/CLFY_$CUR_DATE.dmp BUFFER=4096 GRANTS=Y COMPRESS=Y ROWS=Y OWNER=sa
echo CLFY_$CUR_DATE.dmp"

</pre>

The script is working fine when I run it. The crontab doesn't seem to work. Any help will be appriciated.

Thanks

I also get this:

<pre>

isgsi01(root)21: tail log
! bad user (oracle) Wed Nov 7 11:20:00 2001
> CMD: /home/oracle/exp_CLFY_script
> oracle 13958 c Wed Nov 7 11:20:00 2001
> CMD: /usr/lib/sa/sa1
> sys 13959 c Wed Nov 7 11:20:00 2001
< oracle 13958 c Wed Nov 7 11:20:00 2001 rc=1
< sys 13959 c Wed Nov 7 11:20:00 2001
> CMD: /usr/lib/sa/sa1
> sys 14273 c Wed Nov 7 11:40:00 2001
< sys 14273 c Wed Nov 7 11:40:00 2001
isgsi01(root)22: pwd
/var/cron
</pre>

There is no allow file in /etc/cron.d oracle user is not included in the deny file.

I had a look at previous threads and Livinfree's scripts.

Also:

I changed the crontab file using "crontab -e" to

<pre>

$ crontab -l
02 12 * * * /home/oracle/exp_CLFY_script > /home/oracle/logfile.log 2>&1

</pre>

did not work or created any <B> logfile.log<B> in the /home/oracle directory.

I am really confused, can anyone help.

For some reason the cronjob is not even starting. By what the logs say (and you have verified that oracle isn't in the deny files), you might want to check to see if the oracle password has expired, or if the account is disabled in any way.
http://www.sunmanagers.org/archives/1999/0475.html

I'm finishing up my shift now; I'll look for more links later if you haven't got it figured out yet...

Thanks Livinfree,

The link was usefull. I believe it is the 'oracle' user password.
I have never been given the password for oracle and the procedure is to always switch to user 'oracle' using 'su' from root account.
Do you know if I can do that, if the oracle password has expired?
Thanks alot

It is very likely that your "oracle" user environment
does not get set when you run this cron job. A sure way to deal
with this is to set up your environment explictly in the
shell script (i.e. ORACLE_SID, etc.).

When you log in as the "oracle" user, type "env"
and look for all ORA... variables and make sure to
set and export them explicitly in your shell script.

That's a definite consideration once the script executes, but I don't think cron is even attempting to run the job.

guest100, are you using shadowed passwords? If so, check the /etc/shadow file to verify that there is a valid entry in the password field (the second field). Check the man page for the shadow file (on a Linux system, it's in section 5 - not sure if it would be in the same place for Solaris or any other Unix) for details on what each field means.

Please let us know how it's turns out...