Need help setting up cron

[Schiz0]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Robert Dailey <rcdailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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...
>

Are you using full paths? Cron generally doesn't have $PATH set, so
it's a good habit and practice to use full paths. In the script,
instead of running "mkdir test" to create /svn_root/test, run "mkdir
/svn_root/test" instead.