How to set cron job correct path to run a node.js script?

Question

I'm trying to automate a Node.js file to run on schedule. But I can't get it to work.

I'm using root user.

This is the path to get to the file location from login: nodejs_projects/amazon_search_v2

Here is pwd output from the login location:

root@project:~# pwd
/root

And this is the script i'm adding in crontab :

0 4,12,20 * * * node nodejs_projects/amazon_search_v2/searchItemsApi.js  >/dev/null 2>&1

What am i'm missing here?

Answer 1

This one worked for me:

* 0,8,16 * * * cd ~/nodejs_projects/amazon_search_v2/ && /usr/bin/node searchItemsApi.js >/dev/null 2>&1

As described here: Link

In Curtis Xiao answer. Using which node to find the node executable path and cd to get into the file folder and prevent relative path issues.

Answer 2

• You have to provide a full path to node /usr/local/bin/node like this.

0 4,12,20 * * * /usr/local/bin/node nodejs_projects/amazon_search_v2/searchItemsApi.js >/dev/null 2>&1

• Better way is to use node-cron library.

const cron = require('node-cron');
 
cron.schedule('0 4,12,20 * * *', function(){
  // task goes here
});

• For more detail, please refer this example.