I'm logged in as root, and I'm trying to get cron to run. I edited /etc/crontab so that it looks like this:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
50 * * * * root /scheduled/FocusUpdate/runFocusUpdate.sh


That shell script looks like this:

#!/bin/sh

cd /scheduled/FocusUpdate
java -classpath ".:./commons-httpclient-2.0-rc1.jar:./commons-logging.jar" FocusUpdate ./airborneDownload/

I also put that same script in the cron.hourly directory. However, it didn't run it at the 50th minute, and it didn't run it in the first minute of the hour, either.

Is the script actually executable?

Is java in the PATH that you specified at the top of the crontab?

Java is accessible from anywhere, and I already run that string at the command line, so that's not an issue.

I've noticed that I can't just type .runFocusUpdate.sh to run it at the prompt--I need to type bash runFocusUpdate.sh to get it to run that script...what am I doing wrong?

Are the permissions for the file runFocusUpdate.sh set for executable?

Thanks for re-phrasing that

Just because java is in your PATH does not mean that it's in cron's PATH. You need to compare `which java` with the PATH statement. Also check that the first line of your script is the correct path to bash.

Here are the permissions:

[root@localhost etc]# ls -l cron.hourly/
total 4
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 161 Aug 17 14:44 runFocusUpdate.sh
[root@localhost etc]#

Here are the results of which java:
[root@localhost root]# which java
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_05/bin/java

Here is my PATH:

[root@localhost root]# echo $PATH
/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin:/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_05/bin/
[root@localhost root]#


So it looks like it should find java just fine. Like I said, I think I always have to type bash and then the script name to get it to run, so I guess that last suggestion might be the best lead--it can't find bash on its own (?).

I noticed that in crontab, it says that the path to the shell is /bin/bash and in the script file I'm saying /bin/sh (and I noticed that bash is in bin and sh is also, and sh is a link to bash).

Oh, wait...cron won't use the system PATH, huh? It just uses the one in that crontab file, right? So I need to put Java in there...or if I take PATH out of the crontab file, will it then use the system's default path?

According to the PATH variable in your initial post, the PATH for cron is:
/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

You java executable is in:
/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_05/bin

You'll need to add this directory to the PATH statement in the crontab. Your user PATH statement is basically defined in the login scripts. Cron does not have access to this. Anything outside of the "usual" places will not be found unless the PATH statements is modified or the full path to the executable is given.

Yeah, I just needed java in the path in the crontab file. So, once you use service to start crond, how do you check whether or not it is running? Whenever you choose to start or stop, it doesn't tell you if it was already running...

ps -A | grep cron


Cheers,
Tink

So, if something shows up, then it's running, right? This was my output:

27386 ? 00:00:00 crond


What's that question mark for? Does it not report a time since it's a service/daemon?

? means that it's not running in tty/pty, and the 00:00:00
time means that it's a very well behaved process
using hardly any CPU cycles ;)


Cheers,
Tink