cron won't run commands?

mma8x · 04-05-2006, 11:29 AM

trying to set up a simple crontab entry to record streaming radio progs:

Code:

0 9 * * 1,2,3,4,5       /home/xxxx/Scripts/neil
#
0 11 * * 1,2,3,4,5      killall -9 mplayer

script neil is:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
mplayer -playlist /home/xxxx/Scripts/WTBQ.asx -ao pcm:file=/multimedia/RadioProgs/neil_`date +%m_%d_%y`.wav&;
lame /multimedia/RadioProgs/neil_`date +%m_%d_%y`.wav /multimedia/RadioProgs/neil_`date +%m_%d_%y`.mp3;
rm /multimedia/RadioProgs/neil_`date +%m_%d_%y`.wav;

now, i'm getting the following in my logs:

Code:

Apr  5 09:00:01 localhost /USR/SBIN/CRON[13576]: (xxxx) CMD (/home/xxxx/Scripts/neil)

but nothing seems to happen. the script works fine from command line. testing cron,

Code:

* * * * * echo hello >> /multimedia/RadioProgs/test.txt

works fine, but

Code:

* * * * * /usr/bin/date >> /multimedia/RadioProgs/test.txt

doesn't. same result with any other commands (though log output shows that cron is running them). not quite sure what i'm doing wrong here, though it's probably something simple/stupid.

mma8x · 04-05-2006, 11:49 AM

forgot to mention that if i run the script with cron, i can ps aux|grep mplayer, and it IS running. however, du /multimedia/RadioProgs shows nothing being written. again, running the identical command from the prompt works fine.

marozsas · 04-05-2006, 11:54 AM

You need to specify a DISPLAY variable to graphical programs display their output.
Try to put in the beginning of your script:

Code:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

Of course, the X must be running and owned by the owner of the cron job.

mma8x · 04-05-2006, 12:15 PM

i'll try it, but these aren't graphical programs; mplayer is using pcm to just output to a file, right? and why shouldn't the simple date >> text job work?

mma8x · 04-05-2006, 12:25 PM

huh. that definitely worked, thanks! i guess mplayer is still using X for the soundserver?