Just to close the loop on this. I found that by writing a one line shell script which in turn launched the backup script directing its output to a log file, everything worked. This was really an attempt to debug, but seems to be a fix in itself.
i.e. 00 23 * * * do-the-backup in crontab fails, but 00 23 * * * start-backups works, where start-backups reads: /bin/do-the-backups > /var/log/backup.log So, all is well, but if someone who knows would like to fill us in on why, that would be good! BTW, the backup script is multi-threaded - i.e. it launches simultaneous child processes to backup each home directory - just in case this is relevant. thanks for the reply Dave. cheers Brian On Fri, 2002-03-29 at 01:13, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Check that all calls to programs like 'tar cpio' etc are explicitly called using >full path from root. I believe that cron does not know about your environment as it >does when you are in a shell. > > If this does not work, post the scripts. > > HTH > Dave. > > Original Message: > ----------------- > From: Brian Parish [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: 29 Mar 2002 00:44:05 +1100 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [newbie] What's different with cron? > > > Hi, > > Some time ago a kind soul sent me a set of backup scripts which do a > wonderful job of automating a weekly full backup and daily incremental > cycle. They even restore! Proved that a fews days ago when I had a > disk crash. > > These are launched as root of course, so after having run them a number > of times from a console, and checked that everything worked nicely, I > put the command in root's crontab. I have since found though, that when > run in this way most of the directories specified are not backed up at > all and it seems to vary from day to day. > > So something is different between saying: > > /bin/launch-bkups > > from a console as root and putting: > > > 00 23 * * * /bin/launch-bkups > > in root's crontab. I've looked in /var/log/cron - logs there don't > report anything abnormal. syslog shows no errors. Where else do I > look, or can anyone point out the obvious to me? > > TIA > Brian > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web - Check your email from the web at > http://mail2web.com/ . > > > ---- > > Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? > Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
