LinuxQuestions.org - cron not executing a script

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cron not executing a script

Hello, I have been working with Linux for several years and this is a first for me. For some reason cron is not executing a script for me.

I have been editing the crontab via the command "crontab -e" as the root user.

crontab:

Code:

SHELL=/bin/bash

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin



00 10 * * * root /backup2/kiska.rsync-incremental-backup.sh

I have included an extra line after the end of the crontab in case that newline issue was causing problems, but nothing has changed.

I have verified that crond is running:

Code:

# ps -aux | grep cron

root      8501  0.0  0.0  5988  740 ?        Ss    2013  0:09 /usr/sbin/crond -n

and here is the systemctl output:

Code:

# systemctl status crond

crond.service - Command Scheduler

  Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/crond.service; enabled)

  Active: active (running) since Mon 2013-12-30 16:35:08 AKST; 1 weeks 0 days ago

 Main PID: 8501 (crond)

  CGroup: name=systemd:/system/crond.service

          └─8501 /usr/sbin/crond -n



Dec 30 16:35:08 Atka crond[8501]: (CRON) INFO (running with inotify support)

Dec 30 16:35:08 Atka crond[8501]: (CRON) INFO (@reboot jobs will be run at co....)

Jan 06 10:56:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Jan 06 11:12:01 Atka crond[8501]: (odroid) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/odroid)

Jan 06 11:18:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Jan 06 11:21:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Jan 06 11:25:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Jan 07 09:12:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Jan 07 09:13:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Jan 07 09:18:01 Atka crond[8501]: (root) RELOAD (/var/spool/cron/root)

Any help would be appreciated.

Code:

ls -al /backup2/kiska.rsync-incremental-backup.sh

output and does that file have "#!/bin/bash" in it?

Yes the code starts with #!/bin/bash

and:

Code:

# ls -al /backup2/kiska.rsync-incremental-backup.sh

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8410 Jan  7 09:13 /backup2/kiska.rsync-incremental-backup.sh

what do the /var/log/* files "say" if anything happened?

Code:

grep -i backup /var/log/* -R

You know this stuff, yes? :)

Does it run manually?
absolute /path/to/rsync in kiska.rsync-incremental-backup.sh ?

Just thinking out loud...

When you used crontab -e you edited the root user crontab. It is root's, but it is still a user's crontab. In a user's crontab you cannot specify the user for which the crontab has to run. So it seems the line is an invalid syntax.

If you want to run a job with the user specified, you have to use /etc/crontab. This file is edited directly, and cron detects any changes.

I think this /etc/crontab is the preferred way for system-wide jobs.

Unless you set some options somewhere, cron does not report syntax failures but dies silently.

jlinkels