I have a script that checks if the PPTP VPN is running, and if not it reconnects the PPTP VPN. When I run the script manually it executes fine, but when I make a cron job, it's not running.
* * * * * /bin/bash /var/scripts/vpn-check.sh
Here is the script:
#!/bin/sh
/bin/ping -c3 192.168.17.27 > /tmp/pingreport
result=`grep "0 received" /tmp/pingreport`
truncresult="`echo "$result" | sed 's/^\(.................................\).*$$'`"
if [[ $truncresult == "3 packets transmitted, 0 received" ]]; then
/usr/sbin/pppd call home
fi
finally i found a solution ... instead of entering the cronjob with
crontab -e
i needed to edit the crontab file directly
nano /etc/crontab
adding e.g. something like
*/5 * * * * root /bin/bash /var/scripts/vpn-check.sh
and its fine now!
Thank you all for your help ... hope my solution will help other people as well.
After a long time getting errors, I just did this:
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
* * * * * /bin/bash /home/joaovitordeon/Documentos/test.sh
Where test.sh contains:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/python3 /home/joaovitordeon/Documentos/test.py;
In my case, the issue was that the script wasn't marked as executable. To make sure it is, run the following command:
chmod +x your_script.sh
If you're positive the script runs outside of cron, execute
printf "SHELL=$SHELL\nPATH=$PATH\n* * * * * /bin/bash /var/scripts/vpn-check.sh\n"
Do crontab -e for whichever crontab you're using and replace it with output of the above command. This should mirror most of your environment in case there is some missing path issue or something else. Also check logs for any errors it's getting.
Though it definitly looks like the script has an error or you messed something up when copying it here
sed: -e expression #1, char 44: unterminated `s' command
./bad.sh: 5: ./bad.sh: [[: not found
Simple alternate script
#!/bin/bash
if [[ $(ping -c3 192.168.17.27) == *"0 received"* ]]; then
/usr/sbin/pppd call home
fi
Your script can be corrected and simplified like this:
#!/bin/sh
log=/tmp/vpn-check.log
{ date; ping -c3 192.168.17.27; } > $log
if grep -q '0 received' $log; then
/usr/sbin/pppd call home >>$log 2>&1
fi
Through our discussion in comments we confirmed that the script itself works, but pppd doesn't, when running from cron. This is because something must be different in an interactive shell like your terminal window, and in cron. This kind of problem is very common by the way.
The first thing to do is try to remember what configuration is necessary for pppd. I don't use it so I don't know. Maybe you need to set some environment variables? In which case most probably you set something in a startup file, like .bashrc, which is usually not used in a non-interactive shell, and would explain why pppd doesn't work.
The second thing is to check the logs of pppd. If you cannot find the logs easily, look into its man page, and it's configuration files, and try to find the logs, or how to make it log. Based on the logs, you should be able to find what is missing when running in cron, and resolve your problem.
Was having a similar problem that was resolved when a sh was put before the command in crontab
This did not work :
#reboot ~myhome/mycommand >/tmp/logfile 2>&1
This did :
#reboot sh ~myhome/mycommand >/tmp/logfile 2>&1
my case:
crontab -e
then adding the line:
* * * * * ( cd /directory/of/script/ && /bin/sh /directory/of/script/scriptItself.sh )
in fact, if I added "root" as per the user, it thought "root" was a command, and it didn't work.
As a complement of other's answers, didn't you forget the username in your crontab script ?
Try this :
* * * * * root /bin/bash /var/scripts/vpn-check.sh
EDIT
Here is a patch of your code
#!/bin/sh
/bin/ping -c3 192.168.17.27 > /tmp/pingreport
result=`grep "0 received" /tmp/pingreport`
truncresult=`echo "$result" | /bin/sed 's/^\(.................................\).*$/\1/'`
if [[ $truncresult == "3 packets transmitted, 0 received" ]]; then
/usr/sbin/pppd call home
fi
In my case, it could be solved by using this:
* * * * * root ( cd /directory/of/script/ && /directory/of/script/scriptItself.sh )
I used some ./folder/-references in the script, which didn't work.
The problem statement is script is getting executed when run manually in the shell but when run through cron, it gives "java: command not found" error -
Please try below 2 options and it should fix the issue -
Ensure the script is executable .If it's not, execute below -
chmod a+x your_script_name.sh
The cron job doesn’t run with the same user with which you are executing the script manually - so it doesn't have access to the same $PATH variable as your user which means it can't locate the Java executable to execute the commands in the script. We should first fetch the value of PATH variable as below and then set it(export) in the script -
echo $PATH can be used to fetch the value of PATH variable.
and your script can be modified as below - Please see second line starting with export
#!/bin/sh
export PATH=<provide the value of echo $PATH>
/bin/ping -c3 192.168.17.27 > /tmp/pingreport
result=`grep "0 received" /tmp/pingreport`
truncresult="`echo "$result" | sed 's/^\(.................................\).*$$'`"
if [[ $truncresult == "3 packets transmitted, 0 received" ]]; then
/usr/sbin/pppd call home
fi
First of all, check if cron service is running. You know the first question of the IT helpdesk: "Is the PC plugged in?".
For me, this was happening because the cronjob was executing from /root directory but my shell script (a script to pull the latest code from GitHub and run the tests) were in a different directory. So, I had to edit my script to have a cd to my scripts folder. My debug steps were
Verified that my script run independent of cron job
Checked /var/log/cron to see if the cron jobs are running. Verified that the job is running at the intended time
Added an echo command to the script to log the start and end times to a file. Verified that those were getting logged but not the actual commands
Logged the result of pwd to the same file and saw that the commands were getting executed from /root
Tried adding a cd to my script directory as the first line in the script. When the cron job kicked off this time, the script got executed just like in step 1.
it was timezone in my case. I scheduled cron with my local time but server has different timezone and it does not run at all. so make sure your server has same time by date cmd
first run command env > env.tmp
then run cat env.tmp
copy PATH=.................. Full line and paste into crontab -e, line before your cronjobs.
try this
/home/your site folder name/public_html/gistfile1.sh
set cron path like above
Im doing a Bash-Backup Script with 3 Options:
Do fullbackup
Do fullbackup at a specific time with cron
First I want to ask for the path like: Path of directory: /home
Then i want the hour for the backup: Hour for the backup (0:00-23:59) : 2:00
Then a simple question like: The backup will execute at 2:00. Do you agree(y/n)
I know how to do a crontab but I have no idea how to include that in my script so that I choose option 2 and then the script asks me for the directory and time and set then the crontab.
Any ideas or help would be appreciated!
You can get the existing crontab with
crontab -l
and install a new crontab with
crontab file
So your script would probably need something like
crontab -l | grep -v "# install-backup-script" > /tmp/file.$$
echo "$min $hour * * * /full/path/to/script # install-backup-script" >> /tmp/file.$$
crontab /tmp/file.$$
rm -f /tmp/file.$$
I have the following code in my root cron file:
PATH=/opt/someApp/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
45 12 * * * /home/ben/MetaBackup/metabackup.sh 2>&1 >/dev/null | slacktee.sh -t "Metabase Backup Error" -a "danger"
slacktee.sh is located in /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin however when i run this metabackup.sh runs ok but slacktee.sh does not. I have tried absolute location for slacktee also but that did not work. The more confusing thing is i put the exact same lines in my user crontab and slacktee works fine. What am i doing wrong? Or is this an issue with slacktee that i need to raise there?
EDIT:
slacktee is available here: https://github.com/course-hero/slacktee
You are redirecting stdout and stderr of metabackup.sh to /dev/null , so I think really no output is piped to slacktee.sh and its standard input is empty.
Try removing > /dev/null
I agree with gile !
If there is no output, slacktee won't be able to print anything.
If it's still not working, try to load profile in your command :
45 12 * * * . ~/.profile;/home/ben/MetaBackup/metabackup.sh 2>&1 | slacktee.sh -t "Metabase Backup Error" -a "danger"
Of course, adapt the file depending on if you are on bash or ksh (.profile or .bash_profile)
Do not forget the ". " in front of your .profile file.
Hope it will help.
Most likely, cron is not finding slacktee.sh in its path. You're setting the PATH for the first command, but that setting does not apply to the command after the pipe.
Try using the full path to slacktree:
... | /usr/local/bin/slacktee.sh -t "Metabase Backup Error" -a "danger"
I created a shell script to check a tomcat instance status. If the instance is not started, then start it:
if [ `ps -ef | grep 'travelco' | grep -v grep | wc -l` -eq 0 ];then
sudo /home/q/tools/bin/restart_tomcat.sh /home/www/travelco/
else
echo 'travelco started'
fi
Then I tested the script and it worked well. But after I added it as a crond job, this script didn't work as expected.
I used crontab -e, and added
*/1 * * * * /home/yuliang.jin/travelcoCheck.sh
After that, even though I can see the script executed in the crontab log(sudo tail -f /var/log/cron), the tomcat instance was not started. Why?
There's a sudo in your script but are you sure that your current user has the permission to execute /home/q/tools/bin/restart_tomcat.sh without password authentication?
You should add the script to /etc/sudoers to allow your current user to execute the script without password, or you can just sudo crontab -e to run the script as root (and don't forget to delete sudo in your script if you do so).
If there is any other option, don't sudo in a cron job.
travelcoCheck.sh will be matched by the grep travelco and is not cancelled by the grep -v grep, so wc -l will be at least 1 always. So restart_tomcat.sh will not run.
(As a side note: whether or not your ps-parsing stack gets caught by ps is something of a dark art and is full of corner cases and race conditions and generally difficult to get to work right. Stuff like this is why dbus was invented.)
I created a cronjob with the command crontab -e:
*/1 * * * * /var/lib/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/scripts/test.sh
This file test.sh should be executed every minute. But it doesn't work.
If I run the script manually it works fine. So I think the problem is the cronjob not the script ;)
Are there any permissions or something else which block the cronjob?
Is the cronjob syntax correct?
Thx
For a start, you don't need the /1 if you want it done every minute. Just setting the minute field to * will do.
Next, you should place, as the first lines in your test script (though after the #! line if it's there):
env >/tmp/test.sh.dummy
set >>/tmp/test.sh.dummy
and see if that file shows up.
That will tell you if the script is running or not.
If it's not running, check to make sure cron itself is running:
pax> ps -ef | grep cron | grep -v grep
root 1048 1 0 08:45 ? 00:00:00 cron
(mine is).
If it is running, the most likely problem is that the environment under which cron runs your jobs is nowhere near the environment your shell gives you. Examine the differences between what was output to your /tmp/test.sh.dummy file and what your shell gives your when you execute env ; set.