Getting a cron job to work :S

[feenster99]

Hi all,
I have written a shell script that backs up websites on our dedicated Fedora Core 3 server. I can call it through SSH with "sh /path to/script.sh" and it works great. I have added an entry at the bottom of Crontab thus:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
0 2 * * * root /scripts/websitebackup.sh

But it doesn't run. I have restarted cron (I think!). Am I missing something from the above? I wondered if I need to put:

0 2 * * * root sh /scripts/websitebackup.sh

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Matt

 

[whitecrook]

the command in the crontab should be exactly as you enter it on the command line.

also you should end your crontab with a blank line.

 

[deano]

anything in the logs?

cheers
deano

 

[feenster99]

Thanks guys. I've added the correct entry into Crontab and restarted the service. Hopefully, ill get an email tomorrow morning saying the backup has been carried out.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Frank_Rizzo]

Change the time to the next 5 minutes and get a reply earlier

BTW, I don't know if editing crontab itself is the best way. You may want to use

crontab -e

to edit but beware that you may have to use vi comannds

 

[drupi]

or you could just do an
#export VISUAL=<path to your editor of choice> and run crontab -e in style

 

[feenster99]

Thanks guys, its working now. I have missed the "sh " from the crontab entry and hadn't restarted crond properly.

Matt