Cannot execute rsync as a cron job

jdaniels73 · 09-01-2006, 11:52 AM

Hi all,

Using:
Redhat ES4 U3 (local) to Redhat 7.3 (remote)
rsync version 2.6.3 protocol version 28 (local) to rsync version 2.5.4 protocol version 26 (remote)
OpenSSH_3.9p1 on both servers

I am attempting to execute the following rsync command on my local server as a cron job for the user "bob":

Code:

* * * * * /usr/bin/rsync -av /path/to/sourcefiles/ root@<remoteserver>:/path/to/synchedfiles/

However it just does not work - even though I have it running every minute. What's odd is that I can execute this file, as the user "bob", exactly as it is shown above, and it works fine:

Code:

[localserver bob]$ /usr/bin/rsync -av /path/to/sourcefiles/ root@<remoteserver>:/path/to/synchedfiles/

I'vr tried removing the verbosity - no joy. I have already generated SSH keys for the involved users so there should be no required user input and I have tested this at the command line. I believe that cron has it's own environment of sorts but I figured that using absolute paths would bypass that. I also tried placing the whole command in a script and having that as the executed cron job command but no joy.

Anyone know any workarounds? There are no mesages in any logs that are of any help

Cheers,
Jon

tredegar · 09-02-2006, 08:25 AM

Maybe you could redirect the standard error to a file, then take a look at that and find out what the problem is that way?

Code:

* * * * * /usr/bin/rsync -av /path/to/sourcefiles/ root@<remoteserver>:/path/to/synchedfiles/ 2> myerrorlog

jdaniels73 · 09-03-2006, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Maybe you could redirect the standard error to a file, then take a look at that and find out what the problem is that way?

Code:

* * * * * /usr/bin/rsync -av /path/to/sourcefiles/ root@<remoteserver>:/path/to/synchedfiles/ 2> myerrorlog

Hi,

Thanks for the tip! I did this (I actually outputted to stdout and stderr) and, bizarrely, while the output files contaned 0 bytes, the files themselves (the ones to be rsync'ed) are now getting synched properly...

Must be user error

Thanks again