[SOLVED] Crontab stopped working

varunb · 01-25-2013, 04:31 AM

I use crontab -e to add the following:

*/1 * * * * /bin/echo "Hello" >> /home/varunb/hello.txt

But it does not work!

Logs says

PHP Code:




linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # date ; tail -f /var/log/messages | grep cron
Fri Jan 25 10:18:07 GMT 2013
Jan 25 10:17:41 linux-3jcp crontab[12870]: (root) REPLACE (root)
Jan 25 10:17:41 linux-3jcp crontab[12870]: (root) END EDIT (root)
Jan 25 10:18:01 linux-3jcp crontab[13691]: (wwwrun) LIST (wwwrun)
Jan 25 10:18:01 linux-3jcp crontab[13693]: (wwwrun) LIST (wwwrun)
Jan 25 10:18:01 linux-3jcp crontab[13699]: (wwwrun) REPLACE (wwwrun)

command is fine and works if I run it directly on command prompt.
But for every minute i am testing crontab to work. Its not working.
Please suggest me.

shivaa · 01-25-2013, 06:18 AM

(1) Your crontab entry says that "Hello" will run every minute... are you sure? Can your script finish withing a minute?

(2) Check your crontab entries, as:

Code:

~$ crontab -l
OR
~$ crontab -l <username>

(3) File /var/log/messages will not help much, instead check:

Code:

/var/log/cron.log
/var/log/cron
/var/spool/cron/ etc

varunb · 01-25-2013, 06:36 AM

Just to check whether cron tab is working or not???
That is single line command which is working on command prompt,
but if running through crontab it is not working. And yes i am running it every minute.

Code:

linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # ls
.bash_history  .viminfo
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # date
Fri Jan 25 12:37:52 GMT 2013
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # /bin/echo "Hello" >> /home/varunb/hello.txt
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # cat hello.txt 
Hello
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # date
Fri Jan 25 12:38:03 GMT 2013
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # date
Fri Jan 25 12:39:10 GMT 2013
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # cat hello.txt 
Hello
linux-3jcp:/home/varunb #

Also i am running as root, i don think there will be issue with the permissions.

checked below url even
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7...ab-not-working

don know what is the problem???

and i don find

/var/log/cron.log
/var/log/cron
files.

only /var/spool/cron/

Code:

linux-3jcp:/var/spool/cron/tabs # pwd
/var/spool/cron/tabs
linux-3jcp:/var/spool/cron/tabs # ls
root  varunb  wwwrun
linux-3jcp:/var/spool/cron/tabs # cat root
#!/bin/sh
*/1 * * * * /bin/echo "Hello" >> /home/varunb/hello.txt

chrism01 · 01-25-2013, 06:51 AM

Which distro is this?
On my Centos system the crontab files are in /var/spool/cron.
Can you also check the ownerships, perms, SELinux, possibly also ACLs.
Re SELinux, do you seen anything in /var/log/audit dir?
If cron has an issue running a job, it usually emails the owner; in your case root.

shivaa · 01-25-2013, 08:09 AM

In different distributions, crontab entries are created in different ways.

Code:

*/1 * * * * /bin/echo "Hello" >> /home/varunb/hello.txt

It will work in Linux, but not in Solaris. So once specify your OS.

varunb · 01-27-2013, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

Which distro is this?
On my Centos system the crontab files are in /var/spool/cron.
Can you also check the ownerships, perms, SELinux, possibly also ACLs.
Re SELinux, do you seen anything in /var/log/audit dir?
If cron has an issue running a job, it usually emails the owner; in your case root.

Code:

linux-3jcp:/home/varunb # cat /etc/issue

Welcome to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 (x86_64) - Kernel \r (\l).

It was working for all the users and root user also, suddenly stoped working last week.
So just gave the example for root user, which is not working.

dont know what is the problem???

varunb · 01-30-2013, 02:21 AM

hello all,

crontab is working fine now.
problem i don know still, but the solution is:

i was trying to stop the cron service it was not at all stopping, the daemon was running
so did the process kill for cron and started again.

It started working.

below urls helpd me too. you can check out. I am closing this thread as solved.
thank you all. .

http://askubuntu.com/questions/17497...topped-working

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-l...-restart-cron/