crontab not executing complex bash script - linux

Question

SOLVED! add #!/bin/bash at the top of all my scripts in order to make use of bash extensions. Otherwise it restricts itself to POSIX shell syntax. Thanks Barmar!
Also, I'll add that I had trouble with gpg decryption not working from cronjob after I got it executing, and the answer was to add the --no-tty option (no terminal output) to the gpg command.
I am fairly new to linux, so bear with me...
I am able to execute a simple script with crontab -e when logged in as ubuntu:
* * * * * /ngage/extract/bin/echoer.sh
and this bash script simply prints output to a file:
echo "Hello" >> output.txt
But when I try to execute my more complex bash script in exactly the same way, it doesn't work:
* * * * * /ngage/extract/bin/superMasterExtract.sh
This script called into other bash scripts. There are 4 scripts in total, which 3 levels of hierarchy. It goes superMasterExtract > masterExtract > (decrypt, unzip)
Here is the code for superMasterExtract.sh (top level):
shopt -s nullglob # ignore empty file
cd /str/ftp
DIRECTORY='writeable'
for d in */ ; do # for all directories in /str/ftp
if [ -d "$d$DIRECTORY" ]; then # if the directory contains a folder called 'writeable'
files=($d$DIRECTORY/*)
dirs=($d$DIRECTORY/*/)
numdirs=${#dirs[#]}
numFiles=${#files[#]}
((numFiles-=$numdirs))
if [ $numFiles -gt 0 ]; then # if the folder has at least one file in it
bash /ngage/extract/bin/masterExtract.sh /str/ftp ${d:0:${#d} - 1} # execute this masterExtract bash script with two parameters passed in
fi
fi
done
masterExtract.sh:
DATE="$(date +"%m-%d-%Y_%T")"
LOG_FILENAME="log$DATE"
LOG_FILEPATH="/ngage/extract/logs/$2/$LOG_FILENAME"
echo "Log file is $LOG_FILEPATH"
bash /ngage/extract/bin/decrypt.sh $1 $2 $DATE
java -jar /ngage/extract/bin/sftp.jar $1 $2
bash /ngage/extract/bin/unzip.sh $1 $2 $DATE
java -jar /ngage/extract/bin/sftp.jar $1 $2
echo "Log file is $LOG_FILEPATH"
decrypt.sh:
shopt -s nullglob
UPLOAD_FILEPATH="$1/$2/writeable"
DECRYPT_FOLDER="$1/decryptedFiles/$2"
HISTORY_FOLDER="$1/encryptHistory/$2"
DONE_FOLDER="$1/doneFiles/$2"
LOG_FILENAME="log$3"
LOG_FILEPATH="/ngage/extract/logs/$2/$LOG_FILENAME"
echo "DECRYPT_FOLDER=$DECRYPT_FOLDER" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
echo "HISTORY_FOLDER=$HISTORY_FOLDER" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
cd $UPLOAD_FILEPATH
for FILE in *.gpg;
do
FILENAME=${FILE%.gpg}
echo ".done FILE NAME=$UPLOAD_FILEPATH/$FILENAME.done" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
if [[ -f $FILENAME.done ]]; then
echo "DECRYPTING FILE=$UPLOAD_FILEPATH/$FILE INTO $DECRYPT_FOLDER/$FILENAME" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
cat /ngage/extract/.sftpPasswd | gpg --passphrase-fd 0 --output "$DECRYPT_FOLDER/$FILENAME" --decrypt "$FILE"
mv $FILE $HISTORY_FOLDER/$FILE
echo "MOVING FILE=$UPLOAD_FILEPATH/$FILE INTO $HISTORY_FOLDER/$FILE" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
else
echo "Done file not found!" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
fi
done
cd $DECRYPT_FOLDER
for FILE in *
do
mv $FILE $DONE_FOLDER/$FILE
echo "DECRYPTED FILE=$DONE_FOLDER/$FILE" >> $LOG_FILEPATH
done
If anyone has a clue why it refuses to execute my more complicated script, I'd love to hear it. I have also tried setting some environment variables at the beginning of crontab as well:
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=jgardnerx85#gmail.com
HOME=/
* * * * * /ngage/extract/bin/superMasterExtract.sh
Note, I don't know that these are the appropriate variables for my installation or my script. I just pulled them off other posts and tried it to no avail. If these aren't the correct environment variables, can someone tell me how I can deduce the right ones for my particular application?

Answer 1

You need to begin your script with
#!/bin/bash
in order to make use of bash extensions. Otherwise it restricts itself to POSIX shell syntax.