Cronjob stopped executing - cron

I used the crontab before but cannot get any command running anymore.
I am editing directly via crontab -e and testing with simple commands like
* * * * * echo "hello there" >> /Users/myUsername/Desktop/test.txt
Running this command ps -ef | grep cron | grep -v grep gives me this output:
0 270 1 0 6Sep20 ?? 0:00.61 /usr/sbin/cron
Today is 22Sep20. Did the crontab stop running?
My shell is zsh on MacOS.

On MacOS run crontab -l to list all installed cron scripts
or crontab -l -u [user] for another user.
Your * * * * * syntax means it's running every minute and that looks all fine to me. Check syntax here

Related

Cron won't execute none of my commands on Ubuntu 21.10 impish

I'm trying to run a Docker container every other minute that is stopped via cron job but it seems not working.
What I've done is launch the command crontab -e and add the line
*/1 * * * * docker start sender >> /home/cronlog.log 2>&1
I've added the user group to Docker as explained here (in fact I can access docker from the terminal without sudo)
I have also tried to add the command into a script as below
*/1 * * * * /home/start_container.sh >> /home/cronlog.log 2>&1
with the script containing
#!/bin/sh
docker start sender
but still, nothing happens. The cron process is working tho as using the command ps -ef | grep cron I got
root 881 1 0 08:42 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/cron -f -P
nicola 10905 10178 0 11:31 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto cron
Am I missing something? (Obviously, the commands work if launched manually from the terminal)
Try using the docker path instead.
type the following command to get the path of docker.
$ where docker
/usr/bin/docker
/bin/docker
then try any one of the paths in the cron script
*/1 * * * * /bin/docker start sender >> /home/cronlog.log 2>&1
or
*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/docker start sender >> /home/cronlog.log 2>&1
It turned out that, for some reason, the cron doesn't like the /home/ (at least, in this specific instance)
I've fixed using another path such as
*/1 * * * * docker start sender >> /tmp/cronlog.log 2>&1

Command runs fine in terminal, but not when run as cron job

I am trying to run the following test command every minute with cron:
apachectl status | grep 'requests currently being processed' && 'date' >> /output.txt 2>&1
This would run apachectl status and if the output contains 'requests currently being processed', it would print the result of the command date to the file output.txt.
If I run this in the terminal as the root user, there is no issue. However, running it as a cronjob every minute (I've added it to /var/spool/cron/root) as follows:
*/1 * * * * apachectl status | grep 'requests currently being processed' && 'date' >> /output.txt 2>&1
Does nothing - the output.txt file never gets generated and the job never shows in the log at /var/log/cron. What might the issue be?
You should specify the full path to the executable files, you may easily find it using which command, like which apachectl etc.
*/1 * * * * /usr/sbin/apachectl status | /bin/grep 'requests currently being processed' && 'date' >> /output.txt 2>&1

The Juniper EX switch. Crontab jobs

did someone use crontab on juniper swith EX series? I would like to do restart httpd job, because I need to run this process with different config.
I create some simple script with logging.
#!/bin/csh
echo 'Go...'
cp /jail/var/etc/httpd.conf_new /jail/var/etc/httpd.conf
echo 'changed'
set http_pid=`ps aux | grep 'httpd --config' | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`
echo 'Process PID: ' "$http_pid"
kill -9 "$http_pid"
Also I create a job in crontab
10 12 * * * csh /var/root/test.sh >> test.log
When I run proces from cmd then output is:
Go...
changed
Process PID: 3158
And everything is ok but when I run it from cron then it looks like that:
Go...
changed
Process PID:
I try to change(add) to the crontab line with:
SHELL=/bin/csh
PATH=...
but didn't work. Also I try to change line with job to something like below:
10 12 * * * /var/root/.profile; csh /var/root/test.sh >> test.log
10 12 * * * sh /var/root/.profile; csh /var/root/test.sh >> test.log
10 12 * * * (sh /var/root/.profile; csh /var/root/test.sh) >> test.log
Maybe you know what can I do more to run this correctly?
I resolved this over the weekend. When the script is run via crontab using #reboot, the script runs before httpd is running, therefore there is no PID. I put a sleep 60 in my crontab line and the script delayed for 60 seconds, when it runs, httpd is up and running and has a PID.
Here is my Crontab:
#reboot sleep 60; sh /jail/var/etc/httpd_replace_config.sh > /jail/var/etc/httpd_replace_config.txt

Starting pppd from cron doesn't work

I want to start pppd whenever it disconnects. I am trying to setup a shell script to run every 1 minute to see if it's down and reconnect.
I have a bash script called vpn-check.sh:
ping -c3 10.8.3.0 > pingreport
result=`grep "0 received" pingreport`
truncresult="`echo "$result" | sed 's/^\(.................................\).*$/\1/'`"
if [[ $truncresult == "3 packets transmitted, 0 received" ]]; then
pon VPNname
fi
When I run this script from cli directly, it works and starts ppp but when I run the same through cronjob (for root user), it doesn't work.
I tried the below and didn't work
*/1 * * * * bash /root/vpn-check.sh > /root/cronlog.txt 2>&1
I tried the below and didn't work
*/1 * * * * /root/vpn-check.sh > /root/cronlog.txt 2>&1
Finally, I tried:
*/1 * * * * /usr/sbin/pppd call VPNname> /root/cronlog.txt 2>&1
Can't figure out what could be wrong.
I still don't understand why some scripts work and don't work from cron when it is being called as the correct user according to the logs.
The only solution I found is to run:
crontab -e
and add the following lines to the top (even though I am calling the pppd daemon by the full path):
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
I fixed it. All this while I was running crontab -e
but for the user name to be added, it needs to be added to the system-wide cron file found under /etc/crontab
user that starts the job can only be added in the above mentioned system wide cron file.
You are missing the shebang from your shell script.
vpn-check.sh should look like:
#!/bin/bash
ping -c3 10.8.3.0 > pingreport
result=`grep "0 received" pingreport`
truncresult="`echo "$result" | sed 's/^\(.................................\).*$/\1/'`"
if [[ $truncresult == "3 packets transmitted, 0 received" ]]; then
pon VPNname
fi
See:
http://linuxconfig.org/bash-scripting-tutorial
What does the line "#!/bin/sh" mean in a UNIX shell script?
I was getting the same problem too.I used #dave's answer to figure it out. You just need to add the user name to the crontab, Add the next line to the end of /etc/crontab file:
*/1 * * * * root bash /root/vpn.sh
Replace the shell name of your own.

Crontab without crontab -e

I would like to add a crontab schedule by doing this in my server:
echo "30 * * * * /home/my/var/dir/to/script /var/etc/etc/etc/" > crontab -e
Is there a way to do this without going doing crontab -e and then typing in the command?
Could try
1)nano /etc/crontab (or any other editor, e.g. emacs)
2)echo "30 * * * * /home/my/var/dir/to/script /var/etc/etc/etc/" > /etc/crontab
3)or put the contents of this into a file, then do "file > /etc/crontab"
like root:
echo "30 * * * * /home/my/var/dir/to/script /var/etc/etc/etc/" > /var/spool/cron/crontabs/username
We have the following setup in production on RHEL:
- a custom software starting sh in init.d , which
- handles cron start , stop , reload
- writes cron tasks into separate tmp file and loads this file with crontab -e
I have been only maintaining it for several months but it works like a charm ...
The proper fix is probably to use a file as specified in https://stackoverflow.com/a/4421284/377927, but it is possible to use tee to append a line to the crontab by doing e.g.:
echo "* * * * * ls" | EDITOR="tee -a" crontab -e
tee -a will append stdin to the file it gets specfied, the EDITOR variable tells crontab to use tee -a as editor.
If you have the whole crontab in a text file, you can upload a whole crontab to replace the old crontab by doing:
cat <crontab_text_file> | crontab -
This will wipe out your old crontab. Using '-' allows you to use standard input into the crontab.

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