topic Re: Run crontab job problem in Operating System - HP-UX

Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:16:06 GMT

I post the simliar question previously , but still not have solution , now I have a stupid solution for it , but do not know whether it is OK , actucally we use linux system , the below is the question I posted.

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1127866

The stupid solution is :
because the job is unable to run by crontab job and is normal to run manually , is it OK to set before run this crontab job , it su to a specific user "cron_usr" ( this cron_usr will be dedicated as a login a/c to run crontab job) , and I will modify the ~cron_usr/.bash_profile , so that when this user is login , it will run the crontab job automatically , as a result I can make sure this crontab job run the normal user profile , please advise is it OK to do that ? thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

Dennis Handly — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:54:47 GMT

>I post the similar question previously

(It seems it was hangyu's question?)

>because the job is unable to run by crontab job

Do you know exactly why?

If you want to run it under cron, you must source your .profile, either before you run your script or in it.

You shouldn't have to do something as complex as you proposed.

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:09:41 GMT

It seems it was hangyu's question
> Yes , I lost the password.

Do you know exactly why?
> Still not know the reason , but I guess it should be the difference of .profile .

You shouldn't have to do something as complex as you proposed.
> do you think the solution that I post is possible ? thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:15:25 GMT

thx reply ,

I tried this method , I guess the theroy is OK , but not work when I try to use "su - cron_usr" in the crontab job , what I want is just to run a crontab job , this crontab job will do the login ( userid is cron_usr ) , this user will do the script that I want when login , can advise how to do this ? thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:22:16 GMT

thx reply ,

I tried to rlogin stead su , but still not work , how to run a crontab job that will do the user login ? thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:43:33 GMT

May be my question is not too clear ,what I am testing is :

I tried to write a scrip /tmp/script1

#vi /tmp/script1
rlogn localhost -l cron_usr

#vi ~cron_usr/.profile
my_script

if I run this script manually , it is OK , but if I run it by crontab job , it is not work , so I think run manully and by crontab is different , can advise how can I make it work ?

thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

V. Nyga — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:32:25 GMT

Hi,

why don't you make a copy of your command - use one for running manually, in the other revers all changings you've made and run it with cron, as it worked before?

By the way - which linux are you using?

Volkmar

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:37:15 GMT

thx reply ,

I use Redhat Ent. 3

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 04:30:24 GMT

whether I am not clear state what I want to do ? or it is impossible to do what I want ?

thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:13:13 GMT

thx reply,

why don't you make a copy of your command - use one for running manually, in the other revers all changings you've made and run it with cron, as it worked before?
> sorry , I am not too understand what is that mean ,
but for simply , I just want to setup a crontab job , when run this job , it will login the system ( just like a telnet , ssh etc ) , is it possible ? thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

V. Nyga — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:18:41 GMT

Hi again,

check your previous thread, where the cron job worked!

For Linux you should ask here:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/familyhome.do?familyId=118

HTH
Volkmar

Re: Run crontab job problem

Yogeeraj_1 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:44:49 GMT

hi,

did you try this?

#*******************************************************************************
# min|hour |day |month|day |script
# | |of mo| |of wk|
#----|-----|-----|-----|-----|--------------------------------------------------
#*******************************************************************************
00 21 * * * echo "/home/yogeeraj/myscript.sh; exit"|su - cron_usr 1>/home/yogeeraj/logfiles/output_script.crn 2>/home/yogeeraj/logfiles/error_script.crn
#*******************************************************************************
# END OF TABLE day0->Sunday day6->Saturday
#*******************************************************************************

Kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Run crontab job problem

Yogeeraj_1 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:46:56 GMT

or maybe:

00 21 * * * echo "/home/cron_usr/myscript.sh; exit"|su - cron_usr 1>/home/cron_usr/logfiles/output_script.crn 2>/home/cron_usr/logfiles/error_script.crn

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Run crontab job problem

Dennis Handly — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:23:38 GMT

>Yes, I lost the password.

You can't recover the password because you don't know the old email alias or it no longer exists?

>but I guess it should be the difference of .profile.

Then source that .profile in your script.

>do you think the solution that I post is possible?

As I said, why do something that complex.

>"su - cron_usr" in the crontab job

This will ask for a password if not root. You can't do that in a cronjob.

>this crontab job will do the login (userid is cron_usr), this user will do the script that I want when login, can advise how to do this?

You can set up a crontab for cron_usr. Let that do the work.

>how to run a crontab job that will do the user login?

You can't unless root.

#vi /tmp/script1
rlogin localhost -l cron_usr

>#vi ~cron_usr/.profile
my_script

You don't want to put anything executable like that in .profile.

>can advise how can I make it work?

You create a crontab entry for cron_usr to execute ~/my_script.

In my_script you source .profile:
. ~/.profile

>Volkmar: why don't you make a copy of your command - use one for running manually, ...

There is no reason you can't use one script for both.

>I just want to setup a crontab job, when run this job, it will login the system (just like a telnet

There is no need to login to the system like telnet, just "login" like crontab.

>yogeeraj: echo "/home/cron_usr/myscript.sh; exit"|su - cron_usr

It would be much easier to fiddle with the script than to make the crontab entry so complex.

Also, root can use:
su - cron_usr -c "/home/cron_usr/myscript.sh"

Re: Run crontab job problem

Mario_88 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:35:13 GMT

I havenÂ´t read all of thie but one advice. Use allways the full path to the binaries when using crontab, also if you need any environment variables set them in the script.

Re: Run crontab job problem

ust3 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 11:29:28 GMT

thx replies ,

when run echo "/home/yogeeraj/myscript.sh; exit"|su - cron_usr , it pop "standard in must be a tty" . thx

Re: Run crontab job problem

Yogeeraj_1 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 12:25:22 GMT

hi again,

the following should on the same line:
00 21 * * * echo "/home/cron_usr/myscript.sh; exit"|su - cron_usr 1>/home/cron_usr/logfiles/output_script.crn 2>/home/cron_usr/logfiles/error_script.crn

so that the standard output and error are redirected to the desired files.

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: Run crontab job problem

Dennis Handly — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:02:48 GMT

when run echo "/home/yogeeraj/myscript.sh; exit"|su - cron_usr , it pop "standard in must be a tty"

I believe we mentioned in your previous thread that you need to add "set -x" to your profile so you can find what command is doing that.

Clay mentioned: the fact that stdin, stdout, and/or stderr are terminal devices ...

Typically this is a common mistake in .profile where the tty commands aren't guarded by checks:
# Set up the terminal:
if [ "${-%%*i*}" != "$-" ]; then
/bin/stty erase "^H" kill "^X" intr "^C" eof "^D" susp "^z"
fi

Similarly for ttytype, tset or resize.

Re: Run crontab job problem

A. Clay Stephenson — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:13:43 GMT

... and the much smarter way is to not do an "su - mickey" but simply an "su mickey ..." so that the user's .profile is not sourced. What you do is create a file something like
/usr/local/bin/user_mickey_env.sh and then both your cron'ed script AND mickey's .profile source this file using the "." (dot)operator "./usr/local/bin/user_mickey_env.sh" and then the environment variables including PATH are set in this file. This way, you avoid the potential trapfalls where .profile expects an interactive environment and commands hang or fail. This sourced file must not contain an exit or return statement because the effect will be to exit the foreground process (the current shell).

Re: Run crontab job problem

Dennis Handly — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:43:32 GMT

>Clay: the much smarter way is to not do an "su - mickey"

A smarter way to do it is to not do su at all. Just add a crontab entry for mickey.

>What you do is create a file something like
/usr/local/bin/user_mickey_env.sh

It seems like the right thing to do is fix your .profile. That way you don't come back next year with the same problem on a different script.

(I'm not sure why you would want to put mickey specific stuff in /usr/local/, rather than in ~mickey/.)