Crontab Question.


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Crontab Question.
# 1  
Old 11-13-2007
Crontab Question.

I set up a job to run a script in a certain directory to remove certain files. The script seems to run as my logs indicate but nothing happens. If I run the script manually then it removes the correct files. I'm now wondering if crontab doesnt have access to remove files from the directory I'm pointing to? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
# 2  
Old 11-13-2007
as always.... look into the FAQs first!
# 3  
Old 11-13-2007
Did you read my question? The crontab faq did not answer it. I wasnt referring to cron running permissions.
# 4  
Old 11-13-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by NycUnxer
The crontab faq did not answer it.
99% of problems with crontab are that is executes with a minimal environment and does not execute your .login, .profile or whatever.

Put in a wrapper script that captures the stdout and stderr, and use "#!/bin/sh -x" as the first line in your script to debug it.
# 5  
Old 11-13-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by NycUnxer
Did you read my question? The crontab faq did not answer it. I wasnt referring to cron running permissions.
Yes, I did. I don't believe I said anything about 'running permissions'.
As porter has pointed the answer to 'why it works from CLI and not from crontab' usually has to do with the environment of the crontab. That's what the FAQ explains in great details.
If you do read the FAQ (once again) it might help you to troubleshoot the issue.
# 6  
Old 11-13-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by porter
99% of problems with crontab are that is executes with a minimal environment and does not execute your .login, .profile or whatever.

Put in a wrapper script that captures the stdout and stderr, and use "#!/bin/sh -x" as the first line in your script to debug it.
Actually I'm using the script you helped me with, which is basically

Code:
find .  \( -size 100c -o -size 145c -o -size 170c \) -a -name "*testing*"  | xargs -n 1 rm

So from what you're saying, its not retaining what its finding? Is there a way to make this work in cron for a certain directory?
# 7  
Old 11-13-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by NycUnxer
So from what you're saying, its not retaining what its finding? Is there a way to make this work in cron for a certain directory?
I suggest you post the whole script.

So there should be a "#!/bin/sh" at the start, and also, change the current directory to what you want to start with.
 
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Shell Programming and Scripting

Question on crontab

Hello, I have scheduled the execution of a file (delete_oldv02) every hour with crontab and it works perfectly. See below the instruction written. 0 */1 * * * /home/delete_oldv02 >>/home/delete_oldv02.log My first question is if I can add one more line to crontab. I also would like to... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: dcaccount
5 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Crontab question

I need to run an script every 10th and 25th day in every month at 11pm. the script name is /home/ss/automated.sh I tried to execute the script every day and everytime with the below syntax. its not executing it from crontab. * * * * * /home/ss/automated.sh Any idea why it not... (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: ramkumar15
6 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Another crontab question

Hey out there This is all I have in my crontab file. I know the crontab works because it was already out there and working. I simply replaced the existing with my line of code below to see if it worked. I uploaded 6 month old pdf files in this directory, stopped/started all the scripts that... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: vsekvsek
3 Replies

4. Solaris

Crontab question

I want to run a script on (say) the 4th friday every month. But if I include this line in the crontab : 45 9 22-28 * 5 echo '4th Friday'|mailx -s "Fri week 4" mike it sends me mail if the date is 22-28, OR the day is friday. So I get mail every day for a week , and also every friday. I... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: mikejordan
2 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

crontab question

I have a user (xxx) who is allowed to run cron jobs when a job is launched from cron is the .profile sourced in? I am not sure it is so I setup a cron job as this user to do the following: 35 15 * * 0-5 su - xxx -c "ksh ls -lt /tmp" > /tmp.out and I am seeing the following error (see... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: BeefStu
2 Replies

6. HP-UX

Crontab question

Please cna you tell me if the following command entered in error would affect the crontab file crontab -e | more Thanks :) (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: blondie2407
12 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Question about crontab

Hello guys, I have a server with Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4 (Nahant Update 5), there i have a lot of users, im the root. I need to lock the use of crontab to the users, i mean, i dont want to give to the users the option to creat any crontab line, how can i do that? I tried to... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: lestat_ecuador
4 Replies

8. AIX

How-to crontab question

My question is how to specify the one-time execution of a shell script in crontab? For example: If I wanted to schedule shell "Test.sh" for one-time execution on December 13 at 8:00AM would it be as follows? 00 08 13 12 6 /usr/datatools/dtbackups/Test.sh > /usr/u/sybase_12.5/logs/Test.log &... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Alan.AIX
3 Replies

9. Solaris

Crontab question

HI all, I would want to schedule a job to run every 2 weeks. In the mean time, i'm only able to schedule on every week. Is it possible to schedule 2 weeks on crontab? Thank you. (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: *Jess*
3 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

crontab question

Why does this cron entry do nothing? It works interactively. 58 23 * * * mydate=`date '+%Y%m%d'`;mv /opt/home/user/file /opt/home/user/file_$mydate (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: steelrose
5 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question