[solved] Cron Jobs

tony5429 · 2008-06-02 01:48:09

I would like to run a simple shell script every hour. I have crond in my /etc/rc.conf. How can I go about configuring it to run the script every hour? And would it be any different to run a PHP script every hour?

Last edited by tony5429 (2008-06-07 01:17:22)

nj · 2008-06-02 02:04:31

$ crontab -e
0 * * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script

cron will email you any output from the command, so consider redirecting the output of the script if there is any

0 * * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script 2>&1 > /dev/null

For php, just use /usr/bin/php /path/to/script. Also see 'man crontab' for more examples and explanation of the syntax.

fukawi2 · 2008-06-02 02:51:34

Alternatively, you can symlink the script to the /etc/cron.hourly directory:

ln -s /path/to/script.sh /etc/cron.hourly/myscript.sh

There's also /etc/cron.daily and /etc/cron.yearly

edward.al · 2008-06-02 06:21:22

there is another way to do it

* */1 * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script

is there any different between them??

fukawi2 · 2008-06-02 06:42:30

edward.al wrote:

there is another way to do it
* */1 * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script
is there any different between them??

Yes - that will still run every minute, of every hour

edward.al · 2008-06-02 06:54:00

fukawi2 wrote:

edward.al wrote:
there is another way to do it
* */1 * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script
is there any different between them??
Yes - that will still run every minute, of every hour

*/60 * * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script

it run every 60 minutes, not every hour at minute 0 ?:/

fukawi2 · 2008-06-02 08:42:16

edward.al wrote:

*/60 * * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script
it run every 60 minutes, not every hour at minute 0 ?:/

Yes, that will... What you originally posted wouldn't

tony5429 · 2008-06-06 08:13:43

Thanks! It works! One question though... I am creating the shell script directly in /etc/cron.hourly. How do I tell that not to send me an e-mail of the output each time it runs?

fukawi2 · 2008-06-06 11:28:03

Inside your script, you'll have to redirect everything that produces output to /dev/null

For example:

echo "this is output" > /dev/null

If you want to suppress error output too, use the &> redirector:

echo "this is output" &> /dev/null

If I have a script like that, I find it easier to add it to the crontab (using crontab -e) and just redirect the output of the whole script:

*/60 * * * * /path/to/script > /dev/null

Last edited by fukawi2 (2008-06-06 11:28:31)

tony5429 · 2008-06-06 15:22:59

Perfect; thanks!

tony5429 · 2008-06-07 00:26:02

Hrm... actually I am running into a problem... In each case below, I am showing the contents of my shell script (/etc/cron.hourly/shcrontest.sh)...

This works, but sends me an e-mail each time:

mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked

This fails to ever create the directory:

echo "mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked" > /dev/null

This also fails to ever create the directory:

echo "mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked" &> /dev/null

I do have it set to chmod +x (-rwxr-xr-x). I am sure I am missing something very simple here. Can anyone help?

tony5429 · 2008-06-07 01:16:23

Got it!

mkdir /home/karam/shcrontestworked > /dev/null 2>&1

Last edited by tony5429 (2008-06-07 07:24:10)

fukawi2 · 2008-06-07 10:44:46

That's it - sorry, I can see how I was confusing in my last post

veranyon · 2010-02-15 01:18:35

hm..
neat..

Last edited by veranyon (2010-02-15 01:24:53)

skottish · 2010-02-15 01:54:17

Holy ancient thread Batman!

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-02 01:48:09

[solved] Cron Jobs

#2 2008-06-02 02:04:31

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#3 2008-06-02 02:51:34

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#4 2008-06-02 06:21:22

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#5 2008-06-02 06:42:30

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#6 2008-06-02 06:54:00

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#7 2008-06-02 08:42:16

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#8 2008-06-06 08:13:43

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#9 2008-06-06 11:28:03

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#10 2008-06-06 15:22:59

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#11 2008-06-07 00:26:02

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#12 2008-06-07 01:16:23

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#13 2008-06-07 10:44:46

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#14 2010-02-15 01:18:35

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

#15 2010-02-15 01:54:17

Re: [solved] Cron Jobs

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