rsync's in crontab not running, not sure why

anon091 · 07-14-2009, 08:12 AM

Hi guys. Now I truly do have my first problem. There is a crontab setup that has some rsync's in it. Well when I look at the free space in the source and destination directory, they don't match after the rsync (which has a --delete in it).

could my crontab be turned off? or could rsync just be failing?

schneidz · 07-14-2009, 08:14 AM

^ what is the contents of your crontab ?

could you redirect stdout and stderr to some log file ?

tredegar · 07-14-2009, 08:14 AM

Please post your crontab "rsync's"

anon091 · 07-14-2009, 08:22 AM

Here is the line that I know isn't working by comparing directory sizes.

05 02 * * 2,4,6 rsync -r -a -p --delete /data1/stuff /data2/stuffbackup/

tredegar · 07-14-2009, 08:32 AM

cron's $PATH is very limited, or non-existant so you need to give the /full/path/to/rsync

Code:

tred@vaio:~$ which rsync
/usr/bin/rsync
tred@vaio:~$

So for me I'd put:

Code:

05 02 * * 2,4,6 /usr/bin/rsync -r -a -p --delete /data1/stuff /data2/stuffbackup/

and see if that worked better.

repo · 07-14-2009, 08:34 AM

Also, cron will sent a mail to root in case of problems.

anon091 · 07-14-2009, 08:37 AM

How do I check the mail to see if there was a problem?

repo · 07-14-2009, 08:43 AM

login as root, and type
mail

Best is to change the root mail in /etc/aliases

Code:

nano /etc/aliases

change

Code:

root:root

to

Code:

root:your-username

So all mail for root will be sent to your user account.

BTW, adding the path in cron, as tredegar suggested, should solve the problem

anon091 · 07-14-2009, 08:48 AM

OK, my next dumb question is how do i edit the crontab to add the path in?

the rsync's worked before without the path, or so i'm told. did maybe a redhat update break that?

repo · 07-14-2009, 08:51 AM

If you are the owner of the crontab

Code:

crontab -e

centosboy · 07-14-2009, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjo98

OK, my next dumb question is how do i edit the crontab to add the path in?

the rsync's worked before without the path, or so i'm told. did maybe a redhat update break that?

Code:

crontab -e

presuming it is the current users crontab.

for messages/errors, check the email address that cron sends alerts to.
also check the /var/log/cron file to see if the job has been running succesfully

anon091 · 07-14-2009, 08:51 AM

ok, thanks. then i just do a wq to exit out of it?

repo · 07-14-2009, 08:53 AM

Quote:

ok, thanks. then i just do a wq to exit out of it?

Depends which editor you use
for vi wq

centosboy · 07-14-2009, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjo98

ok, thanks. then i just do a wq to exit out of it?

it opens in the default current editor.

centosboy · 07-14-2009, 08:54 AM

grrr...repo

always quicker then me