LinuxQuestions.org - Backup script runs but exhibits strange behavior

Hi all,

I'm writing a backup script to backup the folders on a windows server.

Basically, the script reads a text file for the windows folders, mounts them via mount.cifs then tars up the folders and as a backup report, it does a listing (tar -tf).

The strange part that I can't understand is this:

I can run the script from the command line as root. It works fine. I've tested the script with one line in the folderList.txt file (the list of folders) and with 3 lines. However, when I run the script as a cron job at 1:30am, although the script runs, it doesn't backup anything. As in, the script fires and the tarfiles are created, but they're all empty. I've also tested the cron job to fire in the middle of the day (e.g. 3pm) and it runs fine.

Any ideas? Also where would the logs be (if there are any)?

N.B. Before anyone comments, yes, I'm a Doctor Who fan (as evidenced by my choice of server name!) ;)

Script is below:

Code:

#!/bin/bash



# Get the date

THEDATE=`date +%d%m%y_%a`

TODAY=`echo $THEDATE | cut -d '_' -f 1`



# Get the day of week

DOW=`echo $THEDATE | cut -d '_' -f 2`



MNT="/remoteDir"                                # this is where the remote FS is mounted

BACKUPDEST="/backupFiles"                        # this is where the backups get dropped

BACKUPCONFIG="/root/backups/backupConfig"        # this is where the config files are located

EXCEPTIONS="$BACKUPCONFIG/Exceptions.txt"        # location of the exclusions file

LISTINGS="$BACKUPDEST/Listings"                        # location of file listings



#Prepare for a full backup by removing the snapshot files

function prepFullBackup {

  FILE=$1

  if [ -f $FILE ]; then

      rm $BACKUPCONFIG/$FILE.snar

  fi

}



# Mount the remote server

function mountFolder {

  echo "Mounting //claraoswald/$VAR $MNT" >> outputfile.txt

  mount.cifs -o ro,credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlm //claraoswald/$VAR $MNT

  sleep 10s # wait 10 seconds

}



# Create the tar file and file listing

function createBackup {

  echo "Starting backup: tar -cJf $BACKUPDEST/$1 -g $BACKUPCONFIG/$2.snar -X $EXCEPTIONS $MNT" >> outputfile.txt  

  tar -cJf $BACKUPDEST/$1 -g $BACKUPCONFIG/$2.snar -X $EXCEPTIONS $MNT

  echo "Starting listing: tar -tf $BACKUPDEST/$1 > $LISTINGS/$2'_'$TODAY'_'list.txt" >> outputfile.txt

  tar -tf $BACKUPDEST/$1 > $LISTINGS/$2'_'$TODAY'_'list.txt

}



for VAR in $( cat folderList.txt )

do

  FOLDER=`echo $VAR | cut -d '_' -f 2`



  if [ "$DOW" == "Mon" ]; then

      BTYPE='Full'

      prepFullBackup $FOLDER

  else

      BTYPE='Inc'

  fi



  FILENAME=$FOLDER'_'$TODAY'_'$BTYPE.tar.xz

  mountFolder $VAR

  createBackup $FILENAME $FOLDER

  umount $MNT

done