cron and date command options for output

[Jay W. Smith]

I'm doing a make_tape_recovery backup from cron and I want the output to go to a file with the date at the end.

I'd like the date format to be Year Month Day as numbers like the following:
"20040229"

I can't seem to get it to work and I think it may be a bug in cron.

Here's my command in cron:
10 15 24 2 * /opt/ignite/bin/make_tape_recovery -AIv > /home/js4519su/mtr_out.$(/usr/bin/date +%Y%m%d)

This work when I perform the command outside of cron. It also works for "at" however, in cron, the file gets named as follows:

"/home/js4519su/mtr_out."

When I do it outside of cron or in "at" the file name is created as expected:

"/home/js4519su/mtr_out.2004"

Any ideas????

[Patrick Wallek]

Try setting the date to a variable and then use the variable in the file name.
I would do a little script for the whole thing:

DATE=$(/usr/din/date +%Y%m%d)
FILE=/home/js4519su/mtr_out.${DATE}
/opt/ignite/bin/make_tape_recovery -AIv > ${FILE}

Then put the name of your script as the cron entry.

[Charlie Rubeor]

cron makes special use of the percent sign. Try $(/usr/bin/date +\%Y\%m\%d), should work fine.

[Jeroen Peereboom]

Or use /usr/bin/date "+%Y%m%d") (with ").

JP

[Jay W. Smith]

The /usr/bin/date + \%Y\%m\%d worked.

Thanks,

Jay

[Charlie Rubeor · Accepted solution]

Please assign points. I need them.