what is wrong with this crontab entry ?

[Rob Johnson_3]

This is mail that is generated as a result of the crontab entry:

johnsonr@nmscrme03 > mail
From johnsonr Tue Feb 7 12:11:15 2006
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:11:15 -0500 (EST)
From: johnsonr
Message-Id: <200602071711.k17HBF707885@nmscrme03.kp.org>
To: johnsonr
Subject: Your crontab file has an error in it
Content-Length: 1084

Your "crontab" on nmscrme03

unexpected end of line
This entry has been ignored.


? n

This is the crontab entry:

johnsonr@nmscrme01 > crontab -e
"/tmp/crontabn9a4o2" 11 lines, 757 characters
00 8 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-CentralCron.sh > /dev/null
30 8 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-DONCron.sh > /dev/null
00 9 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-EastBayCron.sh > /dev/null
30 9 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-GoldenGateCron.sh > /dev/null
00 10 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-NorthBayCron.sh > /dev/null
30 10 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-SacrementoCron.sh > /dev/null
00 11 * * * /opt/home/johnsonr/cronstuff/NC-SouthBayCron.sh > /dev/null
00 6 * * 0,3 /opt/CSCOpx/bin/crmimport.pl /opt/IMS/tmp/cw2k_db.add

#script to watch for the process that communicates with the remote syslog server
30 * * * * $HOME/scripts/pswatch.sh >> /tmp/out 2>&1

[Geoff Wild · Accepted solution]

You can use $HOME in cron...

Also, you might have garbage in it.....

do a crontab -l >z

then
od -Ad -tc -v z

Get rid of garbage, extr lines...

then

crontab z

Rgds...Geoff

[TwoProc]

Rob,

My guess is that it's the script that has $HOME in the command line.

Remove this and put the absolute path.

Keep in mind that when cron runs, its environment is extremely "light", and doesn't know much about defaulted variables. In most cases, this lack of defined environment variables is the cause of the problem.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The first glaring thing I see is $HOME. Very few environment variables are defined under cron.

[DCE]

Rob,

You are better off using full path names instead of variables like $HOME - cron runs a limited shell and sometimes has problems with variables in command lines.

Also, have you tried remarking one line out at a time to see which one causes the error message?

[Steven E. Protter]

Cron doesn't have access to $HOME.

It has almost no environment.

SEP

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Rob:

You have too many fields:

30 * * * * $HOME/scripts/pswatch.sh

Remove one splat ("*").

Regards!

...JRF...

[Geoff Wild]

My post should have said "can't" use $HOME in cron - fat finger syndrome - sorry....

[Arturo Galbiati]

Hi,
I use $HOME in crontab from a lot of time (HP-UX11i) without any problem and the syntax:
30 * * * * $HOME/scripts/pswatch.sh >>/tmp/out 2>&1
it's ok.
Use:
crontab -l>crontabl.txt
strings crontabl.txt>crontabls.txt
diff crontabls.txt crontabl.txt

If ther are differencies means that at least one unprintable char in present in your crontab.

HTH,
Art

Art

[Jakes Louw]

I picked that problem a short while ago with a NULL or empty line somewhere in the crontab entry: crontab will take the crontab -f but will not run properly. I see your crontab has an empty line before "#script to watch ....."
Remove this empty line.