crontab - conditional task execution

Question

i'm trying to run following command from cron:

[[ -d some_folder_path ]] && [[ $(date +%u) -lt 6 ]] && touch ~/testOK

Unfortunately it's not working although when I run it outside the cron it works perfectly.

Kind request for help solving the issue.

have you tried to put it inside a script a run that script in cron? — Andrea Baldini, May 13 '20 at 10:24
cron defaults to `sh` so set your shell to `bash` if the `sh` in your system points to something else and not `bash`, or don't use `[[ ]]`, also the `%` gets interpreted by cron, escape it. — Jetchisel, May 13 '20 at 10:33
the shell is set to bash by SHELL=/bin/bash Should I escape the % by adding the \ sign ? — qaz82, May 13 '20 at 10:35

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 13 '20 at 10:50

First thing you have to make sure that your SHELL variable is set to Bash. crontab has special meaning for % so you have to escape it using "\"

so I tested your cronjob it should be like

* * * * * [[ -d /Users/mkhade/Downloads ]] && [[ $(date +\%u) -lt 6 ]] && touch ~/testOK

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