Crontab Problems

RemusX2 · 07-13-2006, 12:13 AM

I'm trying to do my first Crontab entry and I am not having anyluck =[

Here's what I got : I want the computer to shutdown on day X at time X

Here's the Crontab entry

Code:

0 1 * * 0,1,2,3,4       shutdown -h now
30 2 * * 5,6            shutdown -h now

I have been testing it with

Code:

X X * * * reboot

where the X's are the upcoming minutes.

Where am I going wrong?

Thanks

majalee · 07-13-2006, 01:18 AM

the first question is whether u are doing this as a 'user' or as a 'root'. if u r doing this as a 'root' u will not have any trouble. but as a 'user' do u have permissions to execute 'shutdown' and 'reboot'. if u do not have permissions, your crontab wouldn't work.

aaditya

RemusX2 · 07-13-2006, 01:40 AM

The machine that those cron entries are active, I am running Ubuntu and root is disabled. I did issue

Code:

sudo crontab -e

in order to add the entry... so this should all be working then?
Would it require me restarting the cron service?

Thanks

zidane_tribal · 07-13-2006, 02:37 AM

go to a console. type 'shutdown' and press enter. read what the result is.

i suspect what you need to be doing is 'sudo shutdown', whilst ubuntu has no concept of a root account, the linux software that you are trying to use *does* require root priveledges. after a quick fiddle on a local box, you can jink with sudo to not require a password from you, then use sudo shutdown in your cron. you should probably be able to tinker with cron and get a root or system crontab.

why are you wanting to turn the machine off anyways? i'm curious.

doc.nice · 07-13-2006, 05:13 AM

you will need "sudo shutdown -h", but check the manpage for anacron, because this little helper calls any jobs that weren't executed at the scheduled time because the system was powered down or anything else. So if you turn of your system at 1.00 and hav set the cronjob to do it on 1.30, the next time you boot, anacron will detect the missed job and will execute it...

maybe a litte script that checks the $(date) and compares it with preset dates will do better. This script should be called by cron.

hth,
Flo

archtoad6 · 07-13-2006, 10:08 AM

One of the reasons that I am loth to try *buntu is the non-standard treatment of root.

BTW, I believe that it's not that these distros "has no concept of a root account", it's that root is effectively disabled by not having a password in the default configuration.

That said, here are the fixes I have heard about:

Code:

# Permanently enable "normal" root:
sudo passwd

# Start a root terminal session:  
sudo su