how to pass arguments to the script with at command

[Aji Thomas]

hi guys,

I am trying to write a backup script to back up my oracle datafiles and I am trying to pass an argument while executing the script.
eg: sh back_script 2

Now within my script i have specified
cp /home/oracle/example.dbf /home/day$1

Based on the input argument the backup goes to the directory /home/day2.

but when i need to schedule the backup using the at command, i am unable to pass an argument. It says bad date specification.
How best can I achieve my objective.
AJI

[Doug O'Leary]

Hey;

A couple of things to try. First, if you're doing this from the command line, then enter:

at ${time_string}
/bin/sh /path_to_script/back_script 2 &
D

Another thing you should consider is using cron instead of at. More often than not, you want backup scripts to run periodically, not just once. To do that, execute crontab -e, then enter:

${min} ${hour} ${day} ${month} ${weekday} /path_to_script/back_script 2 > /dev/null 2>&1

If you really need to run this all from a single command line using at, put the commmand entire command in quotes:

at ${time_string} "sh back_script 2"

HTH;

Doug

[Aji Thomas]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the reply,
but I will be executing another file "startbackup" where i want to specify something like
at -f backupscript 2 16:45

This 2 has to be passed to backupscript.
Please advice me
AJI

[Ermin Borovac · Accepted solution]

Argument to -f option must be name of the file containing commands.

You can try

# echo "sh backupscript 2" | at 16:45

[Aji Thomas]

Hi Ermin Borovac ,

the command exactly work the way i want from command line.
But you know I want something like
echo "sh backupscript $1" | at 17:51

where $1 is parameter i specify when i run the script like
$ sh startbackup 2

this value 2 should come in the syntax specified by you

thanks in advance
AJI

[Mel Burslan]

chmod o+x backupscript # these lines will eliminate need for sh directive
chmod o+x startbackup

your startbackup script will have a line like this:

at 17:51 /path/to/script/backupscript $1


you invoke your startbackup

/path/to/script/startbackup 2

hope this helps

[Aji Thomas]

HI mel

I tried this way before, and tried exactly following the way specified by you again, but i am getting bad date specification error.

please advice me,
AJI

[Victor Fridyev]

Hi,

Try this:
echo "sh back_script 2" | at now + 1 minutes

HTH

[Mel Burslan]

okay, there is something deeper going on in here. $1 in this directive is not a date specification, 17:51 is. If it is not working, could you please copy & paste, or attach the script/scripts and tell us how you start them, i.e., if it is from the command line, show us the command, or if it is from cron, paster the cron entry line from the crontab.

Without those, we are fighting with an enemy that we can not see with our hands tied on our backs. Unfortunately, there is no single solution to any particular problem in unix and there is no blanket solution to a generalized statement. I have learnt this if nothing else in my 15+ years of being a sysadmin.

Please provide as much detail as possible.

[Aji Thomas]

hi

It started working by modifying startscript
as
echo "sh backupscript $1" | at 17:51

and now i can run as
$./startscript 2

thanks guys for the support