Cron job to run every monday wednesday and friday...?

init · 07-29-2004, 08:31 AM

I have searched around for a bit with no luck. I want to run a job every monday wednesday and fri at 12:00am from the cron. I am running vixe-cron.

Code:

crontab -l

Code:

 0 0 * * 1,3,5 /etc/backup/backupscp.sh

I thought this was the correct way but I guess not.

Everwhere I search I pull up all kinds of examples but none that tell me what I am looking for.
I want to avoid using the day of the month field because it will be different every month.

Thanks

paulsm4 · 07-29-2004, 10:27 AM

Hi -

Your "cron" syntax looks OK - maybe the problem lies elsewhere?

Your "cron" user environment is *different* from your logon environment: there are some subtle differences in which environment variables are defined, how they're defined, and your file permissions.

Please try this:

1. Write a "dummy", ("hello world") script and verify that you can execute it through "cron"
2. Add logging to your "real" script and verify that it's doing what you think it should be doing.

My guess is that your "backup" is probably successfully being invoked by "cron" ... and then silently failing.

'Hope that helps .. PSM

init · 07-29-2004, 11:04 AM

I have other cron jobs running properly. this is my root user crontab

Code:

 0 1 * * * /usr/bin/emerge sync
                                                                                
0 2 * * * /usr/sbin/fixpackages > /dev/null 2>&1
                                                                                
0 3 * * * /usr/bin/updatedb
                                                                                
1 * * * * /usr/bin/ntpdate -b molecule.ecn.purdue.edu > /dev/null 2>&1
0 2 * * 1,3,5 /etc/backup/backup.sh

most of these will email me via 2>&1

snipit

Code:

#Snip-Snap Backups
rm -rf /root/backups/mysql/snip-xml-*
rm -rf /root/backups/web-root/snip-htdocs-*
cd /var/www/localhost/htdocs
tar -zcPpf /root/backups/web-root/snip-htdocs-`date +%m%d%y`-tar.gz _snipsnap > snip-backup.log 2>&1 > snip-backup.log
[ -s snip-backup.log ] && cat snip-backup.log | mail -s 'snip-backup.log' root
rm snip-backup.log
$MYDUMPX snipsnap > /root/backups/mysql/snip-xml-`date +%m%d%y`.sql

The only thing I dont like is that I only have mail notification on certine parts, I would like to log the hole script and have that sent out via e-mail also.

can I add this to the crontab to log

Code:

0 2 * * 1,3,5 /etc/backup/backup.sh > host-backup.log 2>&1 > host-backup.log; cat host-backup.log | mail -s 'host-backup output' root

This is less important than getting it to work in the crontab of course

but it would help me see all the output.

also I can run these scripts by manually with no errors.

paulsm4 · 07-29-2004, 11:22 AM

Sounds good.

I definitely think the problem is likely with your user permissions and environment running under "cron" (vs running from the command line). Your logging "2>$1 host-backup.log" is definitely the way to go.

Please make sure you have universal write access ("umask 0; chmod +rw host-backup.log ") and please consider adding some additional "echo" statements to your script to make sure that you can actually write to it during your backup.

Good luck - I think you'll have the problem resolved quickly!

Your .. PSM

paulsm4 · 07-29-2004, 11:24 AM

Whoops - I meant "2>&1 host-backup"...