I am ftping from a linux server to a Windows server running Serv-U Ftp server, and the Serv-U server is set to Active Mode ftp. I have a script that ftps at night from the Redhat server. If I run the script at night in a cron, I get "passive mode not allowed on this server" errors and the files don't transfer. If I execute the same script manually, I don't get the error and the files transfer.

Any suggestions why and is there a command script to run it actively and successivly.

Thanks

cron is not a standard shell. Many things that will work OK at the command line don't in cron because of this difference. The main reason this occurs is that cron doesn't inherit an environment so some things you don't think about (such as $PATH) may not be defined.

type "echo $PATH" and you'll the paths that are searched when looking for executables. Without this variable even simple commands such as "ls" wouldn't work because it wouldn't know where to find them.

Often for cron scripts you need to insert a PATH variable into the script or just hard code the full path to commands. So if your script now contains "ls" you would need to change it to "/bin/ls". You need to do this for each command used in the script or alternatively set PATH=/bin:/usr/bin: (etc...) so that it knows where to find each of your commands.

And of course PATH is just one of many possible variables. You need to make sure you know what your script is relying on - there may be a config file you need to source.

Thanks. I set up passive mode and allowed those port on the router and it work.

Thanks