bash script runs standalone but not with cron

Question

I know you get this a lot, but i couldn't get this code to work in cron. even though it runs stand alone. i am trying to ssh to server, get last redmine backup file, encrypt it with gpg public key, copy it over to local backup computer, delete encrypted file and exit.

#!/bin/bash
ssh user@192.168.1.131 'cd /data/redmine/redmine/data/backups; file=$(ls -t | head -1); gpg --always-trust --encrypt --recipient 2E87B5C4E322C0AFCD1113EFCBB7C68 $file; enc_file=$(ls *.gpg); scp $enc_file user@192.168.1.129:/backups/redmineBackups/backups; rm $enc_file'

my crontab looks like this

* * * * * /scripts/redmineEncrpt.sh

trying to run it every minute for testing. cron runs it but never get the result.

would you please help me out figure out this? thank you

Output is sent to the cron user's email. Are there any errors there? — Barmar, Aug 20 '19 at 16:29
and yes there should be semicolon before, but that didn't fix it — user3585153, Aug 20 '19 at 16:33
Redirect the output to a file. Put `>>/tmp/cron.log 2>&1` at the end. — Barmar, Aug 20 '19 at 16:34
mail to is empty string, and we have different jobs that are running with no issues. but this one doesn't — user3585153, Aug 20 '19 at 16:36
Why do you set mailto to an empty string if you're trying to debug a problem? — Barmar, Aug 20 '19 at 16:37
it wasn't set by me, i am new developer and just trying to add new job (my first one ever) — user3585153, Aug 20 '19 at 16:39
[so] is for programming questions, not questions about using or configuring Unix and its utilities. [unix.se] or [su] would be better places for questions like this. — Barmar, Aug 20 '19 at 16:43
after adding an output i figured that the file name was wrong. i corrected the issue. now it is working. — user3585153, Aug 20 '19 at 16:56
But the filename was right when you ran it standalone? How did that happen? — Barmar, Aug 20 '19 at 16:57
i mistyped filename in crontab. when i reviewed the output, it stated that file does not exist. so i checked the crontab list and found the mistake. — user3585153, Aug 20 '19 at 17:20

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 20 '19 at 17:06

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cron uses a restricted environment to execute the scripts, as mmccoo posted in other thread, you can check your script with the variables defined in the cron environment.

env - `cat ~/cronenv` /scripts/redmineEncrpt.sh

You can check if that produces any error.

answered Aug 20 '19 at 17:06

Antonio Beamud

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He explained in comments that the actual problem was a typo in the crontab. – Barmar Aug 20 '19 at 17:22
Sorry, I didn't see that comment – Antonio Beamud Aug 20 '19 at 17:35

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '19 at 18:01

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my issue is just a typo, filename was wrong. thanks to Barmer who helped me output cron log that let to fixing the problem

thanks guys

answered Aug 20 '19 at 18:01

user3585153

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bash script runs standalone but not with cron

2 Answers2