UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello all,
One more Cron job Query!!

Ok I have a cron job which calls a shell script.The shell scripts uses 11 parameters whose values are set up in a config file and this file is sourced using the . $custom_path/filename format in my shell script.

Now the problem is the shell script executes fine when run alone but does'nt, when run as a cron job.I have found out from this forum that, it may be because cron is not able to translate the $custom_path environement variables values.Hence I tried using the absolute path and the cron job runs fine....

Now I don't want to use the absolute path, but prefer to use the environement variable.Is there anyway it could be done?

I found a thread which talks about creating an env_profile,but could'nt understand much of it....Please help

Thanks
V

you can intialize the variable in ".profile" file of your user directory .

eg:
export custom_path="<absolute path>"

Once this line is added to profile ,
Schedule you script in cron like below .

<time settings> .profile ; <script_name>

Now, cron can access $custom_path from your profile.

Why don't you source the file, where the custom_path is set, in your script?

Regards

Hi Franklin,
Sorry could'nt follow what you said..But I will explain my problem again.

there is a custom top(path) set for customizations of Oracle applications in the Unix box.It is called as $XXINT_TOP.This already points to a directory structure such as a/b/c/d/.

Now I have a shell script which takes 11 parameters.This script needs to be run as a cron job.Hence I have set up the cron job,but don't want to expose the parameter values(some are username and Pwds) inside the cron job.

Hence what I do is I have a config file which contains these 11 parameters with their values and I have placed the config file and the shell script which is to be run as a cron job under the $XXINT_TOP/bin folder.I source the config file inside my shell script and the shell script works fine when run alone(it takes the parameter values from the config file).

However the cron job does not run, because in the crontab i have given the cron entry as below:
*/2 * * * 1-5 sh $XXINT_TOP/bin/RCUK_FILES_TRANSFER.ksh >>/a1/b1/c1/cron_log 2>&1

The cronlog file has this error:
/bin/RCUK_FILES_TRANSFER.ksh: /bin/RCUK_FILES_TRANSFER.ksh: No such file or directory

I think this is because the cron is not able to translate the value for the $XXINT_TOP environment variable.

How do I get around this problem.

Thanks
V

You can run the script with the full path in your cron job or are there reasons not to do that?

Regards

Well yes,If I do that it works fine,but I don't really like it.

You know this cron job will be propagated across various environements and each time it is done I don't want the admin to update the cron job with the absolute path(manual entry updates may lead to errors).The path $XXINT_TOP/bin will be present across all environements and referring to it eliminates the need to maintain the program .....

It is possible to add the path of your script to the PATH variable in your cron file, or is that problematical too?

Regards