Need help setting up cron

[Robert Dailey]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Brie Gordon <brie.gordon at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Nils Kassube <kassube at gmx.net> wrote:
>>
>> Robert Dailey wrote:
>> > I'm currently running Ubuntu Server 8.04, and I am having difficulty
>> > getting the cron program to work.
>> >
>> > First, I tried adding the following to /etc/crontab:
>> >
>> > 30 12 * * * root /my/script/file
>> >
>> > For testing, I put in an hour & minute that was about 2 minutes ahead
>> > of the current time so I could see if it worked. First of all, I was
>> > not able to find a log file *anywhere* to tell me if the task was run
>> > or not.
>>
>> In /var/log/syslog I can see entries from CRON. While I'm using the
>> desktop version, I don't think it should be different for the server
>> version. If you don't see any entries, is cron running?
>>
>> > Secondly, the script in question created a set of directories,
>> > so I checked to see if those directories were created in order to
>> > verify if the script was run. However, I did not find the directories,
>> > which leads me to believe the script was not executed.
>>
>> Usually I forget to make scripts executable. Can you run the script
>> manually?
>>
>> > I did a little more research on google and I tried doing "crontab -e"
>> > and putting the entry there, however it still did not work.
>>
>> Don't forget: With "crontab -e" you create a crontab for the individual
>> user who invoked the command. Therefore you should leave away the "root"
>> portion of the entry to make it work.
>>
>>
>> Nils
>>
>> --
>> ubuntu-users mailing list
>> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>
> Try reading through this for a good background and understanding of crontab:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Brie Gordon
>
> http://granite.sru.edu/~bag6849/index.html

Yes, I can run the script manually.

I did the following:

1) Log in as root
2) "crontab -e"
3) Add my task

When the time comes for it to be executed, I do not see the folders
generated that the script should be making. I go to /var/log/syslog
and I see:

Jul 17 13:35:01 server /USR/SBIN/CRON[8221]: (root) CMD
(/svn_root/backup.script)

/svn_root/backup.script is the script that I set the task to execute
and at the exact time that the log is showing (13:35). Why don't I see
the folders created that the script made?

Something is wrong...