Noah wrote: > I just rebuilt a new 5.5 server and I am finding root's crontab entries > are not being executed. any body got some clues about how I can > troubleshoot this issue so my cron entries are bring executed.
Verify that root's crontab does anything at all by running a simple command every minute. Eg. use 'crontab -u root -e' to add this line to the root crontab: */1 * * * * /usr/bin/touch /tmp/foo Then if you do 'ls -l /tmp/foo' you should see the timestamp changing every minute. Remember to remove this line once you're done testing. If it doesn't, check that cron is enabled and running. It is enabled by default in /etc/defaults/rc.conf. Examine /var/log/cron -- everything cron tries to run should be logged there. However, I suspect that the problem is the standard gotcha when using cron. Scripts run from cron get a very minimal environment. In particular you *will* need to set the PATH explicitly at the top of your script. Something like this generally suffices: PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin export PATH Or else use fully qualified paths for any programs you call from the script. This is the primary cause of programs that work fine under test when run from your login account but that do not work when run from cron. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate Kent, CT11 9PW
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