[solved] Cron Jobs

I would like to run a simple shell script every hour. I have crond in my /etc/rc.conf. How can I go about configuring it to run the script every hour? And would it be any different to run a PHP script every hour?
Last edited by tony5429 (2008-06-07 01:17:22)

Hrm... actually I am running into a problem... In each case below, I am showing the contents of my shell script (/etc/cron.hourly/shcrontest.sh)...
This works, but sends me an e-mail each time:
mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked
This fails to ever create the directory:
echo "mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked" > /dev/null
This also fails to ever create the directory:
echo "mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked" &> /dev/null
I do have it set to chmod +x (-rwxr-xr-x). I am sure I am missing something very simple here. Can anyone help?

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] Cron Job that starts every 30 minutes from boot

I wish to have a cron job that runs a script every 30 minutes from boot, without any users logging in.
I know about crontab -e, but I think that would I only run once i'm logged in. I've also heard about @reboot, but that would only run the script once.
RabbidRabbit
Last edited by rabbidrabbit (2012-01-31 20:14:13)

Cron jobs will run whenever the system is up, regardless of whether or not anyone is logged in.
I don't remember the syntax, but I know that at least some cron implementations have a way to run a job every 30 minutes, starting for the first time 30 minutes after reboot.
EDIT: I just checked the syntax for fcron, which is what I use, and it seems like doing @ 30 your/command/here will make it run every 30 minutes of uptime.
Last edited by kyla (2012-01-31 00:17:30)

[Solved] Setting Up A Cron Job

I want to set up a cron job that will copy (update) my download folder that contains all my linux related stuff to the linux downloads folder contained in my windows downloads folder. I know how to set up crontab but vi(m) confuses me since it opens crontab as a temp file and I dont know what to call it when I try and save it. I tried using EDITOR=nano crontab -e but it still opens vim
heres the line I want to input into crontab:
0 3 * * * cp -Ru /home/bran/downloads/* "/media/mybook/Downloads/Linux Downloads/"
Last edited by brando56894 (2009-05-05 23:12:05)

I tried adding the job to /etc/cron.daily but that didnt seem to have any effect on anything, ive been learning vim on and off for awhile now but its alot to learn and its completely different than anything else. I know the basic stuff (save, quit, quit!, startinsert) but thats about it. I think the best feature I love about it is the syntax highlighting since i usually use nano and it doesnt seem to work even when i tried to enable it in the config file.
brisbin33 wrote:
hey, that was my bad. i guess it's a preference that i incorrectly characterized as a best practice. too much bash scripting makes me aware of when things don't _need_ to be double quoted... doesn't mean they _shouldn't_ be double quoted.
getting into that habit of the down slash in front of spaces might come in handy though b/c you would know to also put it in front of symbols like $ and ? which wouldn't behave well inside double quotes. however, in your case, either way works just fine.
i'll trade that bit of bum advice for some good advice though: look into rsync, it works very similar to cp except it won't spend all that time/energy copying files that are already there. does my nightly backup (~205 GB) in less than 3 minutes.
oh, and don't forget to add [solved] if you get this all working.
haha its cool, i was actually thinking about using rsync originally but then i was looking up a guide for it and it seemed to complex to do something simple like I needed to do. my linux downloads folder is only about 400 or so mb and the u flag updates only changed files so it doesnt take that long anyway.

Fail to save a Cron job (SOLVED)

I can't save a new cron job in my system. I use
crontab -e
or
export VISUAL=gedit && crontab -e
to add a new job. These commands open a /tmp/crontab.XXXX file that after saving, cron jobs are NOT updated!
It's too strange to me* !
I run
nano -w /var/spool/cron/root
and the cron job is listed now by
crontab -l
Why I can't save cron jobs directly from crontab -e?
( I have read the vi man pages :-) )
* I am newbie, just one month Linux user with 3 distro succesfully installed

osigen wrote:Ooops! VI is complicated editor.
Thanks anyway!
Its a great editor once you learn to use it
here's some usesfull documentation on the commands:
http://www.fprintf.net/vimCheatSheet.html

[Solved] Have Cron Job Open Terminal Window

I want to run a ping script every morning to check the liveliness and latency of specific servers. The script itself works fine but I can't figure out how to have cron open up a terminal window so I can see the script running.
This is what I have so far:
#runs /home/bran/pingservers.sh everyday at 8:30 am
10 10 * * * env DISPLAY=:0 konsole -e ~/pingservers.sh
But it doesn't open anything I don't even know if the job is even executing.
Last edited by brando56894 (2013-05-20 14:25:42)

I am unsure how to get the script to open a terminal, but the journal should have some information on whether the script is running or not and if there are any errors.
brando56894 wrote:
I don't even think cron jobs are running at all. I changed my job to
1 * * * * /bin/echo hello world
and it hasn't done anything...
As far as the job above, I just wanted to note that you have it set to run on the first minute of every hour. If you were looking for every second minute, you would want the following:
*/1 * * * * /foo/bar
Last edited by BluMongoose (2013-05-14 22:01:48)

Help Please : Cron Job to automate load process

Hi
I am trying to automate data load process. I am loading data into a number of tables from flat files.
Currently I have a UNIX (SunOS) file with a bunch of SQLLDR commands and I changed permission on this file to executable. Every morning I execute this file to load data.
Now I want to automate this process by writing a cron job and scheduling it. I am running into a number of problems. I exported ORACLE_SID, ORACLE_HOME and PATH still cron is unable to find SQLLDR.
Whatelse am I missing. Here is my command file and cron file.
Please help!?!?!?
ORAENV VARiables
export ORACLE_HOME=/export/opt/oracle/product/8.1.6
export ORACLE_SID=fid1
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
.profile
. $HOME/oraenv
daily_full.sql file
export ORACLE_SID ORACLE_HOME PATH
sqlldr userid=user/pwd control=acct.ctl log=acct.log
sqlldr .......
Cron Job
16 11 * * 1-5 /apps/fire/data/loadscripts/daily_full.sql >> /apps/fire/data/loadscripts/fulllog.log 2>&1
Output fulllog.log file
/apps/fire/data/loadscripts/daily_full.sql: sqlldr: not found
/apps/fire/data/loadscripts/daily_full.sql: sqlldr: not found
Thanks
Shanthi

Hi Ramayanapu,
first; you have written a shell-script not an sql-script. Please rename your file from daily_full.sql to daily_full.sh
I suggest that you use the cronjob from a user who has the enviroment with the variables ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME.
In this case cron will operate from the $HOME variable of this user.
Perhaps your export will destroy the .kshrc setting. The statement has no effect in your script, please remove it.
Rename your sqlldr-Statement as follows;
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlldr userid=user/pwd control=<path>acct.ctl log=acct.log
<path> will placed with the path of your controlfile.
Your user/pwd will correspond with a ORACLE user who has the right to insert in the destination table.
Your logfile will be place in the %HOME directory.
Hope that i could help to solve your problems
with kind regards
Hans-Peter

Cron job status

Hi All
I had configured 1 cron job (in Unix and script is also in unix ) long back. But presently I dont know this job is running or not? Please suggest how to look this cron job is running or not?
Please help me out..
Thanks,
Siva

Hello Siva
ps -ef|grep cron
If it won't work - try to look for your cron
# crontab -l
or the other solution :
configure a mail for the scripts in the cron tab. hope this will solve your problem.
# Purpose : To email to India, Hyderabad Backup Adminl
if [ "$fbackup_status" = "0" ]
then
mail_file="/tmp/root/online.results"
echo "Backup Completed Successfully, Return Code: $fbackup_status" >> $mail_file
mt -f /dev/rmt/0m offline
else
     if [ "$fbackup_status" = "4" ]
     then
          mail_file="/tmp/root/online.results"
          echo "Backup Completed with Warnings, Return Code: $fbackup_status" >> $mail_file
          mt -t /dev/rmt/0m offline
     else
          mail_file="/tmp/root/online.results"
          echo "\n Backup [ FAIL ], Return Code: $fbackup_status" >> $mail_file
     fi
fi
for mail in [email protected]
do
mailx -s "aperp1 Backup Report" $mail < $mail_file
done
# remember to include this in your script
Cheers
Ravi
http://ravidba-oracle.blogspot.com/

Cron job emCCR after installed OBI11.1.1.5.0

OBIEE 11.1.1.5.0 on Rdhat 5.2. After installation saw a cron job created0,15,30,45 * * * * ORACLE_CONFIG_HOME=/u01/app/obi11115/instances/obi11_dev /u01/app/obi11115/Oracle_BI1/ccr/bin/emCCR -cron -silent start emCCR appears to be Configuration Manager. But do I have a Configuration Manager running for a default installation of OBI 11.1.1.5.0 Enterprise? If not does it has impact on my OBIE11
Thanks

A restart solved the issue.

Cron job not running - script uses rsync, ssh (with id_rsa)

Does anyone know how to get cron to run a rsync/ssh script which uses id_rsa for passwordless logins?
I have a backup script I have slaved for months over that works wonderfully when running it from the command line.
It uses rsync and connects with SSH (passwordless using ssh keys). I have setup id_rsa and id_rsa.pub for passwordless logins (this is my user account, and connects using root@ to the server)
As stated all works find when run from the command line. But when I setup a cron job to run this file (exact same line I run from the command line) it does not execute. Actually, it does run, as I have an email notifiction which sends to me. It is just the rsync/ssh part that does not run.
I have spent days and days trying to figure it out. No error messages occur, nothing. Took me a while to find out cron is emailing the user account on Lion the messages (not to a proper email address).
The error shows a permission denied, which I believe to be the cron user cannot use the id_rsa/ssh connection.
Cron is running the script as my user, the same I use on the command line. I even tried copying the id_rsa to the root user .ssh folder in case cron is running as root but that does not work either.
So does anyone know how to get cron to run this rsync/ssh script which used id_rsa for passwordless logins?
Thanks a lot

YES! Got it working, finally!
So the issue is indeed cron/launchd not being able to access the ssh-agent which holds the key.
So this is the solution...
Download keychain for Mac:
http://www.funtoo.org/wiki/Keychain
Then once its installed and configured, the script to run needs this added to the top:
eval `keychain --noask --eval id_rsa` || exit 1
Note I am using id_rsa whereas keychains instructions refer to id_dsa so I just changed it and it works OK.
When the script runs the first time it asks for the key password. Then it works from then on.
What I do not know yet is will I need to re-enter the password when I logoff/logon again. That will cause an issue as I auto restart the Mac every day which means if I am off for a few days backup will stop (can you see the madness in this issue!).

How to take the cron job log in HP UX?

Hi,
How to take the cron job log in HP UX
I need to run a backup and other stuff everyday. How do I check and start cron service under HP-UX UNIX operating system? How do I write cron jobs?
A. Cron service is required to run jobs and tasks such as backup.
You must login as the root to run following commands. Each user that is using the cron service must have a cron configuration file in the /var/spool/cron/crontab directory. Also users are permitted if their name appeared in /var/adm/cron/cron.allow file
Task: Find out if cron is running under HP-UX
Type the following command at a shell prompt
# ps -ef | grep cron
Open /etc/rc.config.d/cron file
vi /etc/rc.config.d/cron
Set control variable to 1 to enable cron: CRON=1
Set control variable to 0 to disable: CRON=0
Close and save the file. To start or stop cron you can type the following command:
# /sbin/init.d/cron start <-- start cron
# /sbin/init.d/cron stop <-- stop cron
Task: HP-UX Start cron service
If cron is not running, simply type:
# cron
Task: Edit / create cron jobs
Type the following command to submit a cron job:
# crontab -e
List your cron file:
# crontab -l
Backup all your cron jobs:
# crontab -l > ~/backup.cron.jobs
Remove ALL cron job:
# crontab -r
Task: Crontab file format
Cron file format is as follows:
MIN HOUR DATE MONTH DAY /PATH/TO/COMMAND
0-59 0-23 1-31 1-12 0-6 /root/scripts/backup2tape.shEasy to remember crontab file format:
* * * * * command to be executed
| | | | |
| | | | ----- Day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7)
| | | ------- Month (1 - 12)
| | --------- Day of month (1 - 31)
| ----------- Hour (0 - 23)
------------- Minute (0 - 59)To run /root/script/backup at 23:00, every day, enter:
# crontab -e
Append following
0 23 * * * /root/script/backupRun foo job very weekday (MON-Fri) at 6am, enter:
0 6 * * 1-5 /root/script/backupFor more information refer to cron and crontab man pages.
Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed to get all updates. You can Email this page to a friend.
Related Other Helpful FAQs:
What is Cron?
Linux Start and stop the cron or crond service
Run crontab Every 10 Minutes
Linux / UNIX Setup and run php script as a cron job
Stop Ubuntu / Debian Linux From Deleting /tmp Files on Boot
Discussion on This FAQDavid Says:
January 15th, 2008 at 12:21 am
You might note that all files normally found in /etc/init.d, /etc/rc*.d, and others are all in /sbin in HP-UX 10.20 and up.
Note too that your formatting is off in the description of the /etc/rc.config.d/cron file. Also, if you run /usr/bin/cron instead of /sbin/init.d/cron start, the /etc/rc.config.d/cron file is not used.
Regards,
Satya

I guess it would :)
btw, how did this piece miss from the contents pasted by the OP ?
The doc has given all details of CRON and missed where to see the logfiles. :)
****Added****
I tried man crontab in windows, i dont see it.i overlook most of the things, i would have done the same ;)
Edited by: Bobcatalog on Oct 23, 2008 9:40 AM

Need help with a cron job

What I want to do is run an Applescript every 6 hours and 1 minute. If the computer is asleep when the job comes due, I want it to execute the script and reset the counter. Can crontab do this? If so, how to set it up?

Gnarlodious wrote:
Then skip it, I can see there is no easy way.
I don't think it's that hard, though. Just a bit tricky. I was just a bit confused on what exactly you wanted.
I could write a stay-open Applescript application, but I wanted to avoid cluttering up the Dock just to run a command every 6 hours.
Nah, I wouldn't want that either.
If I were doing something like this and I wanted it to work like this:
1. Run every six hours, at 6 AM, noon, 6 PM, and midnight.
2. Run after waking up if the computer has been asleep and missed any of the times in between, say if you let the computer sleep thru the 6 AM job.
I'd do this:
1. Call the AppleScript periodically from a cron job. How often would be dependent on how tight you want the times to be to when you wake up.
2. Have the AppleScript save a text file somewhere with the time when it runs. That way, if your computer is asleep at 6 AM, the script could use this to decide if it missed running while it was asleep.
3. Have your script check this time and if it's over 6 hours, let the script do its thing. If not, then just exit, to try all this again the next time cron runs it.
Here's kind of a pseudo-code way of describing it:
check if it's 6:01, 12:01, 18:01, 00:01
if yes:
do your AppleScript business
save the current time in a file
exit
if it's not one of those times:
check if it's been over 6 hours since the AppleScript did its business
if yes:
do the AppleScript business
save the current time in a file
exit
if no:
exit
Then you could do two cron jobs:
1 */6 * * * /path/to/applescript
*/5 * * * * /path/to/applescript
The first one would run at your appointed times. The second would just run every 5 minutes to catch those times when the computer was asleep. The "5" could also be "10" for every ten minutes. Or whatever you decide you'd like.
I'd show you an AppleScript, but I'm really not so good at that. If a Perl script would help, I could whip one up pretty quickly, I think.
charlie

Is it possible to have a Cron job in CPO to check the running status of a workflow

Is it possible to have a Cron job in CPO to check every hour to see if a particular workflow is running, if not trigger it by creating a alert, if yes- autokill

Hi Warren,
We don't want our process to expire and also not to execute twice at once. We have a provisioning wrapper workflow which is triggered one time by an alert and it runs endlessly by creating an alert at the end of each instance triggering another instance of the same unless CPO hangs or goes to stand by mode. Since we belong to service team, we don't have any kind of access to CPO DB or logs, so that possibility is ruled out. Just checking for alternatives.

Cron job help- Need to run the Autobuddy command every night...

I have not written anything in the form of a Unix script for YEARS and YEARS. Our XServe was built in Advanced mode, currently running 10.5.4 Server. On this box, we are running Wiki and iChat. Since we built this box as an Advanced box the "Autobuddy" option was not available.
I have since enabled it at the command line, but I am told by Apple that there still needs to be a command run after every time a user logs in if you want others to Autobuddy. That command is this:
"sudo /usr/bin/jabber_autobuddy -m"
Now I think this would be pretty easy to setup as an automatic cron script, but like I said, I have not written something like this in forever. Not to mention, I am not 100% sure what needs to happen since running the script with an sudo command will prompt for the root password.
I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me write the script up, and give me some instructions on how to install it. I just want it run everyday, midnight is fine, I don't really care. All I know is that we have a dept of 150 people, and it grows and shrinks all the time. They can deal with a new user not being seen for 24-48 hours, I just want to get this automated.
Any helps would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks
Tom

If you want to keep it simple try [CronniX|http://www.abstracture.de/projects-en/cronnix] a graphical tool for setting up CRON jobs on OSX. Whilst I have not actually done an autobuuddy in this way, I cannot see any reason why it will not run as a Cron Job.
The proper way ideally would be to use the launchd service.
Something like this should work:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>org.jabber.dailyautobuddy</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/usr/bin/jabber_autobuddy</string>
<string>-m</string>
</array>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key><UserName></key>
<string>admin</string>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>05</integer>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
(not sure why, but tabs are not showing up, making this hard to read)
Message was edited by: Tim Harris

Schedule rman using cron job

I have scheduled a cron job to take rman backup of database everyday at 4PM. But I see that the empty backup.log file is getting generated while the script is not running. If I run the backup.sh script manually then the backup is running fine. The following are the scripts and the crontab details,
backup.sh script is as follows,
cd /u01/app/oracle/rmanbkp
rman target / <<EOF
run
allocate channel ch1 type disk format '/u01/app/oracle/rmanbkp/%d_%T_%s.bak';
backup database;
delete noprompt obsolete;
exit;
EOF
while the output of 'crontab -l' is
00 16 * * * /home/imsoracle/backup.sh > backup.log
Backup is not happening, what is wrong in my settings. Please advise.

Dear $ami Malik,
There is another option that you can use for RMAN scripting as shown below;
0 2 * * 2 export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/ ;
/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/bin/rman cmdfile /db/optima/archive/OPTPROD/RMAN/backup_full.sh
log /db/optima/archive/OPTPROD/RMAN/backup_full.log
vals2:/home/oracle#cat /db/optima/archive/OPTPROD/RMAN/backup_full.sh
connect target sys/password@optprod
backup database format '/db/optima/archive/OPTPROD/backupset/DB_FULL_%d_%t_%s_%p';
backup archivelog all delete all input format '/db/optima/archive/OPTPROD/backupset/ARC_%d_%t_%s';
exit;So you can construct such backup strategy with the cmdfile and log options of the recovery manager.
Hope That Helps.
Ogan

How to Create Linux-Cron Job from a Java Program

Hello,
Can anybody help me to CREATE/EDIT/DELETE Linux Cron job from Java Program. Its Very Urgent.Thanks in advance..
from
Chakri

I decided this didn't sound too tough so I played around with it a little. Basically because I'd never tried executing external processes out of java before, so I wanted to see how it was done.
Just change whatever you like in the jobs ArrayList and call writeJobs.
If you call writeJobs without putting anything in the list first you'll wipe out all of your crontab entries.
import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
public class cron {
    ArrayList jobs;
    Runtime rt;
    cron() {
     rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
     jobs = new ArrayList();
    void readCron() {
     String[] list = { "crontab", "-l" };
     jobs = new ArrayList();
     try {
         // Stick a job into crontab
         Process child = rt.exec(list);
         BufferedReader cronout = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(child.getInputStream()));
         String cronjob = cronout.readLine();
         while (cronjob != null) {
          jobs.add(cronjob);
          cronjob = cronout.readLine();
         child.waitFor();
     catch(IOException e) {
         System.err.println("IOException starting process!");
     catch(InterruptedException e) {
         System.err.println("Interrupted waiting for process!");
    void listJobs() {
     Iterator iter = jobs.iterator();
     while (iter.hasNext()) {
         System.out.println((String)iter.next());
    void writeJobs() {
     String[] edit = { "crontab"};
     try {
         // Stick a job into crontab
         Process child = rt.exec(edit);
         PrintWriter cronIn = new PrintWriter(child.getOutputStream());
         Iterator iter = jobs.iterator();
         while (iter.hasNext()) {
          cronIn.println((String)iter.next());
         cronIn.close();
         child.waitFor();
     catch(IOException e) {
         System.err.println("IOException starting process!");
     catch(InterruptedException e) {
         System.err.println("Interrupted waiting for process!");
    void doStuff() {
     readCron();
     listJobs();
     jobs.add("* * * * 4 cronjob");
     writeJobs();
     readCron();
     listJobs();
    public static void main(String[] args) {
     cron c = new cron();
     c.doStuff();
}

[solved] Cron Jobs

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