cron issue

[Jan-Benedict Glaw]

On Sun, 2011-03-13 21:30:58 +0000, Adnane RABIH <rabihadnane at gmail.com> wrote:
> Le 13/03/2011 18:10, Jan-Benedict Glaw a écrit :
> >On Sun, 2011-03-13 16:10:12 +0000, Adnane RABIH<rabihadnane at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >>I made a script to backup a folder on a remote server it works
> >>manually, I set a cron job to launch the script every 2 mins (for
> >>test), I sse in the log this line
> >>Mar 13 13:10:01 debian /USR/SBIN/CRON[6302]: (root) CMD (root
> >>/usr/bin/backup.sh)
> >>
> >>but when I sheck the remote server nothing is done, any sugestions pls
> >Seems you forgot to attach the script you wrote.
> >
> >...and when you send it, please also tell us as which user you call it
> >and how your whole crontab looks like. (Some variables may be set there.)
> >
> >MfG, JBG
> >
> yep:) thanks for your help
> 
> I found the script in a tutoriel and made some changes to it.
> 
> the 2 machines are Debian boxes 6.0
> 
> #crontab -e
> # m h  dom mon dow   command
> */5 * * * * root /usr/bin/backup.sh

Here's a first problem.

There's one system-wide crontab, as well as per-user crontabs. They
slightly differ in their syntax. Per-user crontabs have an implicit
owner, which must explicitely be set in the system-wide crontab. The
syntax shown above contains a username (and thus is in system-wide
syntax), but the system-wide crontab is never ever be changed by
`crontab -e'.  So essentially, the command executed here is not
"/usr/bin/backup.sh", but "root /usr/bin/backup.sh". And you probably
should get emails with "command not found" or something like that,
assuming that there's no "root" command on your machine.

> # cat /etc/crontab
> SHELL=/bin/sh
> PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
> # m h dom mon dow user    command
> 17 *    * * *    root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
> 25 6    * * *    root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / &&
> run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
> 47 6    * * 7    root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / &&
> run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
> 52 6    1 * *    root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / &&
> run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
> #

This is a correctly formatted system-wide crontab.

> cron.log
> Mar 13 17:10:01 debian /USR/SBIN/CRON[21083]: (root) CMD (root
> /usr/bin/backup.sh)

Obvious problem: an assumed per-user crontab is wrongly processed
because it is in system-wide crontab format. Just throw out the word
"root" in your per-user crontab file (to be modified by `crontab -e'),
and your script will be executed.

MfG, JBG

-- 
      Jan-Benedict Glaw      jbglaw at lug-owl.de              +49-172-7608481
Signature of:                http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
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