UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone, I am having a problem with a cron, I am using Solaris 10 and need to run a php file every 5 minutes. I can run the file from the test user, but the cron does not seem to run. I do not see anything about it in /var/cron/log but see crons for other users running. What should I look for to correct this? I directed the cron to output to a file and the file was empty after 5+ minutes.

bash-3.00$ crontab -l
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php /var/apache2/htdocs/test/test.php

/var/spool/cron/crontabs shows:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root test 98 Jul 31 01:12 test

try this...

Code:

*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php /var/apache2/htdocs/test/test.php

do you have permissions to access test.php file.?

How did you create the crontab file, using crontab -e?

Incidentally ynilesh, Solaris doesn't support the */5 syntax (unless they added it in Solaris 10... which I doubt).

Thanks for the replies. I run the test.php user from the test user but the cron does not seem to run. I originally created the cron using crontab -e. I edited it by updating the file in /var/spool/cron/cronjobs making sure there is no extra line or whitespace. Are there debug options I can look at to see why cron does not show anything for the job in the /var/cron/log?

Hi,

I believe you have checked cron.allow and cron.deny files as well for entries.

Also crontab file permissions should be 400.

Do let know how it goes.

ssk01 - The test crontab permissions are set to 600, I changed them to 400, it didn't make the cron run. I don't have a cron.allow, but the test user is not in cron.deny. I have another user set the same way as test user who is not in cron.deny and those crons run and show in the /var/cron/log.