Configuring cron.hourly

Question

I am unable to configure a cron job to run by placing it in /etc/cron.hourly folder.

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

The file under cron.hourly is :

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   40 2010-07-26 14:52 check -> /usr/local/xxxx/check-interface.bash

Permissions on the file :

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.6K 2010-09-13 11:22 /usr/local/xxxx/check-interface.bash

There seems to be no errors reported in the var/log/cron logfile. No mention of the script is done. :(

Answer 1

In order to isolate the problem, move /usr/local/xxxx/check-interface.bash to /etc/cron.hourly/check , and then see if it runs.

If the script does run, then the problem is caused by an ownership/permissions or related issue which is preventing cron from executing scripts at /usr/local/xxxx/*.

If the script does not run, then the problem is most likely with your script itself.

As another sanity check, replace the contents of /usr/local/xxxx/check-interface.bash with something dead simple, like:

date > /tmp/check-interfaces.log 2>&1

And then see if /tmp/check-interfaces.log is actually being populated by your cronjob. If it does work, then the problem must be with your original script.

Answer 2

I just want to confirm that as Shadur has mentioned earlier, the issue lies in the fact that by default the "run-parts" application used by cron will run only commands that contain only ASCII letters, _, and -. From the official man page:

   If  neither the --lsbsysinit option nor the --regex option is given then the names must consist entirely of ASCII upper- and lower-case letters, ASCII digits,
   ASCII underscores, and ASCII minus-hyphens.