CRON job won't run

I have the following cron:
30 23 * * * kunden/homepages/34/d87200027/htdocs/cgi-bin/mailReminders.pl

The .pl has been tried at 755 and 777
The path has been tried as just /cgi-bin/mailReminders.pl as well

The script works if manually run by the web browser, but I can't get the Cron to do it automatically

Cron is supposed to be supported on the server

The web host hasn't got a clue about what could be wrong as "they just provide the space not programming help"

Is there something obvious I'm missing, or any ideas on what could be stopping it from working?

Many thanks

It looks like you're trying to use the absolute path to the script, but you're not b/c you don't start the command with a forward slash (/). Try /kunden/homepages/... or whatever the complete, absolute path is, but lead with a forward slash.

This was such an obvious error I hoped it would be the cause - however, have added the '/' and still not working.

The absolute path is correct as my perl programmes are working fine.

????????

Depending on what the script is doing, you may be having some permission problems. Cron usually runs under its own user, so if you're trying to modify a file, the script may be dying b/c it "cron" can't access your file. This would explain why it runs in the web browser, as it's probably getting put through some kind of wrapper to execute the script as you. Check for something like that in your code. If you can't find anything, post what you have and I'll look through it. I haven't used a lot of Perl in a while, but I should still be able to read what's going on.

The mailreminders.pl does not write to anything - it just emails reminders depending on whether a diary entry to a database is due.

All the text for the emails is contained within the .pl script

Do you know of something simple I can set up to see if it is the Cron that is not working, rather than the .pl script?

Sorry to be a pain but this is the first time I have tried to use this system.

Is there a way to test if a CRON command is running?

Have just been onto the hosts again and hitting a brick wall. The .pl script works fine from the browser command line - but nothing happening with the cron.

I need to find out for definite if it is the .pl script causing the problem or the cron system isn't set up properly by the hosting company

Try typing this:
ps -xa | grep crond

and report the output here.

This is just a guess, did you restart the cron daemon?

kill -HUP

-- Steven

You might want to tell cron to use a specific user between the weekday-asterisk and the path.

You can also pipe the output somewhere so you can see any error code.

Does this .pl script need to be called from a browser?

Hi.
I have the same problem.
I try to execute a bash script with CRON and it does not run.
If I execute it manually it works.
Must I add (or overwrite) some variable to environment?
Other cron tasks (scripts more simple) work.
Thank you for answering

César

Try forcing some kind of error log -

Chances are good that PATH is not defined correctly for this script to run, or some other env variable is not set correctly. cron does not leave error logs by default.

sleepyfrog
please help yourself, there are tousend threads regarding your
cron probl.
always the same answer: cron has a very LIMITED environment!
MIMIMAL PATH and knows only data from /etc/passwd

Thanks to all for answering me.
Already I solved it.
Solution: put the whole env. n the script.
In order that the possibility will bring of def. and overwrite the environment if it does not work?
Regards.
César

Hi César,

Rather than setting the environment in the script you can dot the .profile via:
. ~/.profile

This is for the korn shell. Other shells have different hidden files (files starting with a .) in your home directory. You can see these with:
ls -a

Cheers,
Andy

hi andyb1ack

no intention to be rude...but

Q1: why do you answer to a solved thread?
Q2: why do you give imprecise answers ?

the ~ in ~/.profile
is 100% an invention of mr. korn (copied from csh)
and the .profile
is 100% an invention of mr. bourne (~197[3-8])

sure the statement: dot filename is 100% correct
for sh, ksh, bash ... other
csh can it better

sleepyfrog:

hast du schon mal 'man cmd-name' probiert... umwerfend
was alles rauskommt bei: man cron sh ksh
es ist sicher nicht meine aufgabe, will auch nicht beleidigend
wirken ... 'wach auf'