Root crontab not running at all.

**Tadaen_Sylvermane** · August 13th, 2021

The script works manually. On the root crontab it doesn't even run. Doesn't even enter the log that it tried or anything.

Code:

# cat root # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/crontab.UoKMpI/crontab installed on Fri Aug 13 10:12:58 2021)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin"
MAILTO=""
USER=root
# m h  dom mon dow   command
15 10 * * *	localbackups.sh

Code:

$ cat /var/log/cron.log
Aug 13 10:12:55 homewrecker crontab[11208]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root)
Aug 13 10:12:58 homewrecker crontab[11208]: (root) REPLACE (root)
Aug 13 10:12:58 homewrecker crontab[11208]: (root) END EDIT (root)
Aug 13 10:13:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)

And a couple minutes after it should have run.

Code:

Aug 13 10:12:55 homewrecker crontab[11208]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root)Aug 13 10:12:58 homewrecker crontab[11208]: (root) REPLACE (root)
Aug 13 10:12:58 homewrecker crontab[11208]: (root) END EDIT (root)
Aug 13 10:13:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)

Code:

# systemctl status cron
● cron.service - Regular background program processing daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/cron.service; enabled; vendor preset: >
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-08-13 07:22:47 MST; 2h 54min ago
       Docs: man:cron(8)
   Main PID: 851 (cron)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 19015)
     Memory: 508.0K
     CGroup: /system.slice/cron.service
             └─851 /usr/sbin/cron -f


Aug 13 09:17:01 homewrecker CRON[6330]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened >
Aug 13 09:17:01 homewrecker CRON[6330]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed >
Aug 13 09:50:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 09:55:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 09:56:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 09:59:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 10:06:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 10:11:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 10:12:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)
Aug 13 10:13:01 homewrecker cron[851]: (root) RELOAD (crontabs/root)

I am thoroughly stumped. I've never seen this before.

**TheFu** · August 13th, 2021

localbackups.sh needs to be the /full/path/to/the/script/localbackups.sh

**sudodus** · August 13th, 2021

Start with an extremely simple script, that just echoes "I'm alive" to a log file. Call it with full path and use full path of programs called in the script (but if you use the shell's echo, you need no path). I suggest that you have a shebang in the beginning of the file, for example #!/bin/bash

When the simple thing works, step up the complexity, for example a tool that needs root permissions, etc. Finally the whole backup system works.

Comment: I don't quote the path, when setting it in my crontabs (and there are no spaces), maybe quoting prevents it from working for you.

**Tadaen_Sylvermane** · August 14th, 2021

I got an echo to pipe to a test file with and without full path. Nothing more complex though. Even a straight duplicity command (with or without full path) doesn't run. I went ahead and figured out a systemd timer though and it's working nicely every 2 hours. Much prefer the crontab method. Such is life. I'll keep tinkering.

**TheFu** · August 14th, 2021

Originally Posted by Tadaen_Sylvermane

I got an echo to pipe to a test file with and without full path. Nothing more complex though. Even a straight duplicity command (with or without full path) doesn't run. I went ahead and figured out a systemd timer though and it's working nicely every 2 hours. Much prefer the crontab method. Such is life. I'll keep tinkering.

Almost all cron job failures are due to environment problems and assumptions. Assuming the script works from a shell, but not from cron, that just means that the output from env is very different under those two situations.
Run
env > /tmp/env-shell
Then put /usr/bin/env > /tmp/env-cron into a crontab to run once.
Now compare the two files. For a long time, HOME wasn't set which would routinely break things. Running stuff as root usually means all sorts of things aren't set. cron doesn't source ~/.bashrc, so none of those settings are made.

And never trust the PATH in cron. Always fully specify the full path to every command used. Always.

**Tadaen_Sylvermane** · August 14th, 2021

You are correct on Environment. I just found it. I had a root check to run. Removing this allowed it to work.

Code:

if [ "$USER" = root ] ; then

I'm not sure why that didn't work when I know I had USER defined in the crontab. At any rate, the script works quite nicely now via cron.

Link to script as it sits - https://gitlab.com/jmgibson1981/home...ocalbackups.sh

Marking solved.