Trying to create crontab

fcocnews · 06-24-2011, 07:38 AM

I am trying to create a crontab and entered the following code (all on one line)

*/5****/usr/bin/php/-f/ services8/webpages/util/f/c/fcoc01.site.aplus.net/fcocnews.com/public/testing/admin/cron/cron.php

When I try to save I get error message:

crontab: installing new crontab
"/tmp/crontab.XXXXTNfOgg":-2: bad minute

Based on what I have read I can't see where the error is.

Any suggestions.

Be gentle I'm still a newbie

Rick

acid_kewpie · 06-24-2011, 07:41 AM

you might want a little whitespace in the string... what's with it all being one "word" ???

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php -f /services8/webpages/util/f/c/fcoc01.site.aplus.net/fcocnews.com/public/testing/admin/cron/cron.php

I guess...

if this is going in /etc/crontab the format is a little different:

*/5 * * * * root /usr/bin/php -f /services8/webpages/util/f/c/fcoc01.site.aplus.net/fcocnews.com/public/testing/admin/cron/cron.php

to explicitly run it as root.

fcocnews · 06-24-2011, 08:54 AM

I added "root" as suggested but received the same error message.

crontab: installing new crontab
"/tmp/crontab.XXXXbB1MsK":-2: bad minute
errors in crontab file, can't install.

Any more suggestions as what I should check.

Rick

acid_kewpie · 06-24-2011, 10:07 AM

Well it's clearly complaining about the minutes, and that's the first parameter, "*/5" is a valid minute, so that can't be what the first whitespace delimited field actually says.

druuna · 06-24-2011, 10:21 AM

Hi,

Could it be that that one long line was cut into 2 lines? It should be one long line.

Hope this helps.

fcocnews · 06-24-2011, 10:53 AM

Chris

I went back in and erased whatever was in the crontab, crontab -r, and rekeyed the command starting at the first character to the left. Went to save and received the same message.

I am using vi as the editor. Could the problem be that the editor?

Rick

speck · 06-24-2011, 10:54 PM

Mentioned a couple times already, but are you putting spaces between the asterisks?

Code:

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php -f /services8/webpages/util/f/c/fcoc01.site.aplus.net/fcocnews.com/public/testing/admin/cron/cron.php

fcocnews · 06-25-2011, 07:22 AM

There are no spaces between the astericks. The input is flush left

Rick

acid_kewpie · 06-25-2011, 08:31 AM

there are no spaces.

So when we've said TWICE now that there need to be spaces...??? TWICE?!

fcocnews · 06-25-2011, 08:58 AM

Sorry

I though the previous responses were asking if I had put spaces not saying I needed to put spaces.

speck - thanks for giving me the proper coding

Rick

acid_kewpie · 06-25-2011, 09:46 AM

I think you'll find I gave you the same line 26 hours ago...

fcocnews · 06-25-2011, 10:09 AM

Again I thought your comment "you might want a little whitespace in the string" was a "nice to do" not a "you need to do"

Again

thanks for you help

filippos · 11-12-2014, 11:40 PM

Same happened to me and the problem was the parameter section
Its wrong to leave null a parameter :
PARAMETER=