Cron job scheduled to the server after logging in via ssh login doest not run

surekag · 02-12-2014, 02:15 AM

The scripts to take backup of the database is scheduled in the crontab of the server logged in via ssh login in the bash shell.

using the command crontab -e

00 11 * * * /path/to/script

But I find no result in the corresponding folder.

Also tried to execute as root, still the same.

If anyone has better experienced with this, Please guide ..

--
surekag

akiuni · 02-12-2014, 02:30 AM

Hello

Did you have a look at your /var/log/syslog ?

Code:

cat /var/log/syslog |grep -i cron

one common mistake about the crontab is to forget the trailing \n at the end of a line. In that case, you should see that kind of message :

Code:

 (system") ERROR (Missing newline before EOF, this
crontab file will be ignored)

surekag · 02-12-2014, 02:38 AM

hi akiuni, thanks for your reply.

I tried with the command , I can see message as

Code:

Feb 12 07:00:02 h2112419 CRON[6519]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)

And also I didnt schedule anything in /etc/cron.hourly, But in the log file it is displaying as

Code:

Feb 12 07:17:01 h2112419 CRON[6583]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)

for every hour.how to remove this.

akiuni · 02-12-2014, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surekag

Feb 12 07:00:02 h2112419 CRON[6519]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)

This message is not relevant, it only means that you don't have any mailer installed and that cron tries to send the result by email.
You can discard if by installing postfix or disable email notification in crond. (just add MAILTO="" at the begining of your crontab).

Quote:

Originally Posted by surekag

And also I didnt schedule anything in /etc/cron.hourly, But in the log file it is displaying as
Feb 12 07:17:01 h2112419 CRON[6583]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)[/CODE]
for every hour.how to remove this.

This is a normal behavior. If you want to disable the hourly crontab, just comment out the line in /etc/crontab :

Code:

25 6    * * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )

About you faulty cron job, I suggest that you redirect the output to a temporary log so as to see if it's executed and if it crashed :

Code:

crontab -e
00 11 * * * /path/to/script > /tmp/mylog 2>&1

surekag · 02-12-2014, 08:15 AM

@akiuni thank you very much.
The log file solved my problem. There was an error in connecting to database. I modified the code then it works perfectly.