topic Re: Cron job problem in Operating System - HP-UX

Cron job problem

Peter Remirez — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 09:27:40 GMT

Hi,

I have an entry in the cron job as follows:
0 13 * * 1 rsync -arvz /afs/sie.intel.com/cad/sun4x_57/xscale/windriver/2.2.1/docs/usb/ /pgfs2/sws1/CSR/users/cloh6/usb/ > /pgfs2/eng/cloh6/syncout0

It somehow fails to execute the rsync command above at the specified time. Hence the job did not get executed at all.

The rsync command did get run when it was invoked from the command line.

I was wondering if anyone does have any ideas on the cause of this problem & the method of solving it?

Thanks

Re: Cron job problem

Pete Randall — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 09:37:17 GMT

Peter,

Cron jobs have minimal environements (i.e. not PATH, few variables set, etc.). Try the full path name for the rsync command.

Pete

Re: Cron job problem

Pete Randall — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 09:37:53 GMT

Peter,

Edited version:

Cron jobs have minimal environments (i.e. not much of a PATH, few variables set, etc.). Try the full path name for the rsync command.

Pete

Re: Cron job problem

Ralph Grothe — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 10:08:54 GMT

In the file you redirected the cronjob's stdout to, does there appear something like:

sh: rsync: not found.

I guess rsync, as Pete wrote, isn't in one of the standard paths cronjobs are furnished with like /usr/bin.

In the shell where you successfully issued the rsync command what does your PATH look like, or what is a "which rsync" responding?

Re: Cron job problem

Andi Rigauer — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 10:14:17 GMT

The best thing to check if your cron was running is to add something into the script like touch /tmp/cron.tmp
after the script supposed to run you can check it under /tmp if the file has been created.
the others a right as well. For cron you should think of the enviroment.
Maybe don't trigger the sync via cron, trigger a other script which triggers the sync. Within this script you can parse the env.
But don't forgett to use a absolute path for it.

Re: Cron job problem

Radim Jarosek — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 10:27:10 GMT

Hi,

As Pete wrote it's common problem when you start scripts from crontab. In addition , from my experience if you use some variables in your script, put in the beginning line

. /home/user/profile

or special cron-profile (file where you can specify PATH, variables, ORACLE_HOME .....)

. /home/user/cronprofile

HTH

Radim

Re: Cron job problem

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 10:33:15 GMT

Here is how I write cron scripts to avoid the problem.

I have two sessions open as the user.

One session edits the script, the other issues the whence command for every command I plan to use.

All commands are done with the full path of the command. It would be easier to set the PATH variable, but that leaves open the possbility that the PATH variable can be changed by the cron script itself.

An OS upgrade can mess up scripts by moving the commands themselves, but I get warning on that and can either use sed to change all user contributed scripts, or softlink to the new command area when that happens.

SEP

Re: Cron job problem

Kent Ostby — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 11:37:03 GMT

Also, check email for root (or whatever user this is) as cron will usually email you output from commands if things dont go well.

I mention this because we tend to not check "root"'s email on our system and then every once in a while we do and usually find old cron job errors :-)

Best regards,

Kent M. Ostby

Re: Cron job problem

Peter Remirez — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 03:02:08 GMT

Kent,
The email which I obtained did not indicate the which command in the crontab produced the error.

The error which message obtained from the e-mail is:
Subject: Your crontab file has an error in it
Your "crontab" on pgsc2603
unexpected end of line
This entry has been ignored.

Is there a way which to run the crontab in a verbose mode i.e. displaying the error message occuring at a specific command?

Thanks

Re: Cron job problem

Steve Post — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 11:10:35 GMT

Besides PATH to commands, people here are telling you to check on all of the environmental variables.

Try this. Put this on the bottom of your crontab file for a second
* * * * /usr/bin/env > /tmp/crontab.env

Wait until /tmp/crontab.env gets created.
Run /usr/bin/env > /tmp/my.env

(remove the /usr/bin/env from the crontab file now).

Then look at both files. If it runs by hand, and not by cron, the differences here could be why rsync fails to run.

IF it's not the environment, maybe there's something different on the system at 1300 hours?

steve

Re: Cron job problem

Pete Randall — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 11:14:28 GMT

Peter,

It's complaining about an unexpected end of line. Unfortunately, the forums formatting makes your crontab entry difficult to read in your original post. Could you attache the actual crontab entry so we can better see it?

Pete

Re: Cron job problem

Wouter Jagers — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 11:16:17 GMT

Unexpected end of line ? Seems like a 'typo' in your crontab..

Try to delete the line completely and type it in again (don't paste it from your clipboard).

greets
Wout