Simple bash script doesn't cron properly - bash

I'm attempting to cron a simple bash script on my macbook-pro laptop. Ultimately, I would like to first get this to work for bash script and then move on to my python scripts. I've created a simple bash file (named hello.sh) with the code below:
#!/bin/bash
echo "Hello World" >> /Users/myusername/Desktop/test.txt
And my crontab -e is designated as follows:
* * * * * /bin/bash /Users/myusername/Desktop/bash-files/hello.sh
However, I get nothing after waiting a minute.
After googling around, I concluded that maybe I was running into the "gotcha" issue (cron reading different parameters than env). So I queued the following:
* * * * * env > /tmp/env.output
and it's output as follows
SHELL=/bin/sh
USER=myusername
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin
PWD=/Users/myusername
SHLVL=1
HOME=/Users/myusername
LOGNAME=myusername
_=/usr/bin/env
running env in my terminal produces the following relevant parameters:
SHELL=/bin/zsh
USER=myusername
PATH=/Users/myusername/opt/anaconda3/bin:/Users/myusername/opt/anaconda3/condabin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/opt/X11/bin
PWD=/tmp
SHLVL=1
HOME=/Users/myusername
LOGNAME=myusername
_=/usr/bin/env
I've added the above parameter settings to my hello.sh script but I still get nothing.
Can anyone point out to what my issue is here?

These are permission and path errors, easily resolved.
Look in system preferences to grant full disk access to your binaries and unset PATH in your scripts to catch any paths that are not complete.
I recommend /usr/local/bin for ease of maintaining any scripts you wish to have launchd or cron to schedule.
There’s no reason you can’t run from your user folder if that suits you, however.

Related

Debian bash script, checking gateway by ping script as cron job [duplicate]

I'm trying to get cron to call in the correct PATHs. When I run a Python script from shell the script runs fine as it uses the PATHs set in bashrc but when I use cron all the PATHs are not used from bashrc. Is there a file I can enter the PATHs into for cron like bashrc or a way to call the PATHs from bashrc?
Sorry I don't think I worded this correctly, I can get the correct script to run (meaning the PATH to the script in crontab is not the problem here), it's just when that script is running I run a build and this uses the PATHs set in .bashrc. When I run the script when I'm logged in, the .bashrc PATHs are pulled in. Since cron doesn't run in a shell per say it does not pull in .bashrc. Is there a way of pulling this in without having to write a bash script wrapper?
I used /etc/crontab. I used vi and entered in the PATHs I needed into this file and ran it as root. The normal crontab overwrites PATHs that you have set up. A good tutorial on how to do this.
The systemwide cron file looks like this:
This has the username field, as used by /etc/crontab.
# /etc/crontab: system-wide crontab
# Unlike any other crontab you don't have to run the `crontab'
# command to install the new version when you edit this file.
# This file also has a username field, that none of the other crontabs do.
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
# m h dom mon dow user command
42 6 * * * root run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily
47 6 * * 7 root run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly
52 6 1 * * root run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly
01 01 * * 1-5 root python /path/to/file.py
Most likely, cron is running in a very sparse environment. Check the environment variables cron is using by appending a dummy job which dumps env to a file like this:
* * * * * env > env_dump.txt
Compare that with the output of env in a normal shell session.
You can prepend your own environment variables to the local crontab by defining them at the top of your crontab.
Here's a quick fix to prepend $PATH to the current crontab:
# echo PATH=$PATH > tmp.cron
# echo >> tmp.cron
# crontab -l >> tmp.cron
# crontab tmp.cron
The resulting crontab will look similar to chrissygormley's answer, with PATH defined before the crontab rules.
You should put full paths in your crontab. That's the safest option.
If you don't want to do that you can put a wrapper script around your programs, and set the PATH in there.
e.g.
01 01 * * * command
becomes:
01 01 * * * /full/path/to/command
Also anything called from cron should be be very careful about the programs it runs, and probably set its own choice for the PATH variable.
EDIT:
If you don't know where the command is that you want execute which <command> from your shell and it'll tell you the path.
EDIT2:
So once your program is running, the first thing it should do is set PATH and any other required variable (e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH) to the values that are required for the script to run.
Basically instead of thinking how to modify the cron environment to make it more suitable for your program/script - make your script handle the environment it's given, by setting an appropriate one when it starts.
Adding a PATH definition into the user crontab with correct values will help...
I've filled mine with this line on top (after comments, and before cron jobs):
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
And it's enough to get all my scripts working... Include any custom path there if you need to.
Setting PATH right before the command line in my crontab worked for me:
* * * * * PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/path/to/some/thing
Make your variables work for you, this will allow access t
Define your PATH in /etc/profile.d/*.sh
System-wide environment variables
Files with the .sh extension in the /etc/profile.d directory get executed whenever a bash login shell is entered (e.g. when logging in from the console or over ssh), as well as by the DisplayManager when the desktop session loads.
You can for instance create the file /etc/profile.d/myenvvars.sh and set variables like this:
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
Execute crontab with login option!
CRONTAB run script or command with Environment Variables
0 9 * * * cd /var/www/vhosts/foo/crons/; bash -l -c 'php -f ./download.php'
0 9 * * * cd /var/www/vhosts/foo/crons/; bash -l -c download.sh
Problem
Your script works when you run it from the console but fails in cron.
Cause
Your crontab doesn't have the right path variables (and possibly shell)
Solution
Add your current shell and path the crontab
Script to do it for you
#!/bin/bash
#
# Date: August 22, 2013
# Author: Steve Stonebraker
# File: add_current_shell_and_path_to_crontab.sh
# Description: Add current user's shell and path to crontab
# Source: http://brakertech.com/add-current-path-to-crontab
# Github: hhttps://github.com/ssstonebraker/braker-scripts/blob/master/working-scripts/add_current_shell_and_path_to_crontab.sh
# function that is called when the script exits (cleans up our tmp.cron file)
function finish { [ -e "tmp.cron" ] && rm tmp.cron; }
#whenver the script exits call the function "finish"
trap finish EXIT
########################################
# pretty printing functions
function print_status { echo -e "\x1B[01;34m[*]\x1B[0m $1"; }
function print_good { echo -e "\x1B[01;32m[*]\x1B[0m $1"; }
function print_error { echo -e "\x1B[01;31m[*]\x1B[0m $1"; }
function print_notification { echo -e "\x1B[01;33m[*]\x1B[0m $1"; }
function printline {
hr=-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
printf '%s\n' "${hr:0:${COLUMNS:-$(tput cols)}}"
}
####################################
# print message and exit program
function die { print_error "$1"; exit 1; }
####################################
# user must have at least one job in their crontab
function require_gt1_user_crontab_job {
crontab -l &> /dev/null
[ $? -ne 0 ] && die "Script requires you have at least one user crontab job!"
}
####################################
# Add current shell and path to user's crontab
function add_shell_path_to_crontab {
#print info about what's being added
print_notification "Current SHELL: ${SHELL}"
print_notification "Current PATH: ${PATH}"
#Add current shell and path to crontab
print_status "Adding current SHELL and PATH to crontab \nold crontab:"
printline; crontab -l; printline
#keep old comments but start new crontab file
crontab -l | grep "^#" > tmp.cron
#Add our current shell and path to the new crontab file
echo -e "SHELL=${SHELL}\nPATH=${PATH}\n" >> tmp.cron
#Add old crontab entries but ignore comments or any shell or path statements
crontab -l | grep -v "^#" | grep -v "SHELL" | grep -v "PATH" >> tmp.cron
#load up the new crontab we just created
crontab tmp.cron
#Display new crontab
print_good "New crontab:"
printline; crontab -l; printline
}
require_gt1_user_crontab_job
add_shell_path_to_crontab
Source
https://github.com/ssstonebraker/braker-scripts/blob/master/working-scripts/add_current_shell_and_path_to_crontab.sh
Sample Output
The simplest workaround I've found looks like this:
* * * * * root su -l -c command
This example invokes su as root user and starts the shell with the user's full environment, including $PATH, set as if they were logged in. It works the same on different distros, is more reliable than sourcing .bashrc (which hasn't worked for me) and avoids hardcoding specific paths which can be a problem if you're providing an example or setup tool and don't know what distro or file layout on the user's system.
You can also specify the username after su if you want a different user than root, but you should probably leave the root parameter before su command since this ensures su has sufficient privileges to switch to any user you specify.
The default environment for cron jobs is very sparse and may be very different from the environment you develop your python scripts in. For a script that might be run in cron, any environment that you depend on should be set explicitly. In the cron file itself, include full paths to python executables and to your python scripts.
On my AIX cron picks up it's environmental variables from /etc/environment ignoring what is set in the .profile.
Edit: I also checked out a couple of Linux boxes of various ages and these appear to have this file as well, so this is likely not AIX specific.
I checked this using joemaller's cron suggestion and checking the output before and after editing the PATH variable in /etc/environment.
If you don't want to have to make the same edits in various places, then roughly do this:
* * * * * . /home/username/.bashrc && yourcommand all of your args
The . space and then the path to .bashrc and the && command are the magic there to get your environment changes into the running bash shell. Too, if you really want the shell to be bash, it is a good idea to have a line in your crontab:
SHELL=/bin/bash
Hope it helps someone!
#Trevino: your answer helped me solve my problem. However, for a beginner, trying to give a step by step approach.
Get your current installation of java via $ echo $JAVA_HOME
$ crontab -e
* * * * * echo $PATH - this lets you understand whats the PATH value being used by crontab at present. Run crontab and grab $PATH value used by crontab.
Now edit crontab again to set your desired java bin path: a) crontab -e; b) PATH=<value of $JAVA_HOME>/bin:/usr/bin:/bin (its a sample path); c) now your scheduled job/script like */10 * * * * sh runMyJob.sh &; d) remove echo $PATH from crontab as its not needed now.
Set the required PATH in your cron
crontab -e
Edit: Press i
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/:or_whatever
10 * * * * your_command
Save and exit :wq
I know this has been answered already, but I thought that his would be useful to some. I had a similar issue that I recently solved (found here) and here are the highlights of the steps I took to answer this question:
make sure that you have the variables you need in PYTHONPATH (found here and here and for more info here) inside the .profile or .bash_profile for any shell you want to test your script in to make sure it works.
edit your crontab to include the directories needed to run your script in a cron job (found here and here)
a) be sure to include the root directory in the PATH variable (.) as explained here (basically if you are running an executable with your command it needs to be able to find root or the directory where the executable is stored) and probably these (/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin)
in your crontab file, create a cronjob that will change directory to the directory where you have successfully ran the script before (i.e. Users/user/Documents/foo)
a) This will look like the following:
* * * * cd /Users/user/Documents/foo; bar -l doSomething -v
Should you use webmin then these are the steps how to set the PATH value:
System
-> Scheduled Cron Jobs
-> Create a new environment variable
-> For user: <Select the user name>
-> Variable name: PATH
-> Value: /usr/bin:/bin:<your personal path>
-> Add environment variable: Before all Cron jobs for user

Shell script doesn't run properly while running from crontab

I read the other related topics but they didn't help me.
I have a shell script which checks if my python script is not running,it will run it. Otherwise it will just skip and do nothing.
It totally works when I use:
bash myshellscrip.sh
And I get the result that I want which is doing some tasks and sending emails to some correspondents. However, when I try to run this particular shell script on crontab, it doesn't send out the emails and doesn't do the other tasks.
I tried the following on crontab and none of them worked.
* * * * * /bin/bash /path/to/my/script/myshellscrip.sh
* * * * * /bin/bash /path/to/my/script/myshellscrip.sh >> /some/other/path/output.txt
When I save the changes into 'output.txt' file, it creates the file but it doesn't send the emails or doing other tasks.
I also tried the option of reboot because I need this program to run at start up too, and this didn't work:
#reboot /bin/bash /path/to/my/script/myshellscrip.sh
Does anyone know how to fix it?
EDIT:
As I was checking with the simplest shell scrip like:
#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/python /home/pi/DCA/code.py
My crontab wouldn't have any output in my output.txt file although my code.py have something printing out, too.
However, when I use a very simple python code for example only a 'print' statement it will run and save the output into output.txt.
Seems like your shell script crashes / stops before it can do something (possibly due to the environment being different or permission issues). You can check /var/log/syslog to find out.
You could try removing /bin/bash, I don't think that's necessary?
Run the cron job in debug mode. for that, Add -x to the bash command on the cronjob and save their output in the file.
bash -x /path/to/script.sh >> /path/to/the/output.txt
You can find the problem.
Apparently crontab was running my script several times. So I tried to use different locking mechanisms to put a lock around my scrip but only using flock worked for me. In my crontab I added this line:
* * * * * /usr/bin/flock -n /tmp/ms.lockfile /bin/bash /path/to/my/script/myShellScript.sh

Cron job does not run

Following is the entry in the crontab:
MAILTO=abc#gmail.com
45 14 * * * /home/user/simple.sh
I've also done chmod +x on the simple.sh But the crontab does not run, it doesn't even send an email.
pgrep cron shows an Id. I also tried bouncing crond. But no luck!
Could someone please point out the mistake here
The simple.sh script is:
#! /bin/bash
echo hello
Thanks
Since you are doing a echo within the cron job script, you need to capture its output somewhere.
Your shebang and file mode (using chmod +x) are all right, so those aren't the issue here and running without /bin/sh should work fine.
Try using the following to see the output in cron.log file (This runs every minute)
* * * * * /home/user/simple.sh >> /home/user/cron.log
Note that cron jobs run in separate subprocess shell, with reduced environment, so its output won't be visible on your terminal.
Regarding sending of email - you need to have some mail package (like postman, mutt etc) configured for the cron daemon to send out error mails.
Do not use relative paths, but absolute ones. Also, indicate the binary running the script, that is /bin/sh (or whatever coming from which sh):
45 14 * * * /bin/sh /path/to/script/simple.sh
Maybe there shouldn't be a space in line 1 of your .sh script:
#! /bin/bash
to
#!/bin/bash
Although I could see why it would still seem to work from when invoked in an interactive shell (# could merely comment out the rest of the line).
Still, I'd guess at worst it'd merely ignore that line and inherit cron's interpreter of /bin/sh

Crontab not executing bash script

I very very rarely use Linux and so don't have any experience with bash scripts and cron jobs.
This is in fact my first attempt. So it's probably something really simple to fix.
I have the following:
/etc/cron.d/clear-mixtape-dir.sh
permissions are: 644
#!/bin/bash
# Clears the /tmp/mixtape2 directory
rm -rf "/tmp/mixtape2/"*
My crontab file looks like so:
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/
*/15 * * * * /etc/cron.d/clear-mixtape-dir.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
I'm trying to execute the .sh script every 15 minutes.
Everything i've found says this should work, but it doesn't.
Does anything like file permissions (on files within /tmp/mixtape2/) matter in this case?
Or perhaps the permissions set on the actual .sh script - maybe they need setting to executable?
Any advice appreciated.
Remove the .sh extension from the script in /etc/cron.d and it will be called.
run-parts ignores files with a period in the name, so the .sh extension is preventing your script from running.
From man cron -
Files must conform to the same naming convention as used by run-parts(8): they must consist solely of upper- and lower-case letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens.
Note: These comments refer to /etc/crontab.
Before doing anything else, which cron are you accessing crontab -e or
su -vim
<your-favorite-editor> /etc/crontab
If you are using crontab -e, then no user field exists in that form of crontab. That might be why you're not running.
In your example, your user field is *. I would make it root or a user that has proper permissions.
Before running this program, I would make a dummy crontab entry that just does
echo "Hello" and runs every minute. Get that to work on which ever crontab you're editing (crontab -e or vim /etc/crontab). Then using that as a template, get your script to run.
Next, see if cron is running:
ps -ef | grep cron
If it is not running, become root and start it by enter
/etc/init.d/cron start (Ubuntu and Red Hat).
You already have a good answer suggesting you add root as the user because of a permissions problem. I'm going to suggest more things to help you debug. I have run into a lot of cron problems over the years.
1) Set the email to a known address, unless you will continually monitor root's email
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=fred#somewhere.com
HOME=/
2) Until everything runs properly, take out the >/dev/null 2>&1 out of your cron entry, so you see the outputs in your email generated after the script runs.
3) Bump */15 down to an interval greater than it takes your script to run -- likr */5, so the script runs more often.
4) I do not know the exact reason, but scripts I run out of cron have to set up their own environments despite being run as that user in cron. This may include steps like cd /home/script-owner and running source .bashrc and calling other script(s) that set environment variables.
*/15 * * * * root /etc/cron.d/clear-mixtape-dir.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
Add user root because your permission seems to be only for root.

How to simulate the environment cron executes a script with?

I normally have several problems with how cron executes scripts as they normally don't have my environment setup. Is there a way to invoke bash(?) in the same way cron does so I could test scripts before installing them?
Add this to your crontab (temporarily):
* * * * * env > ~/cronenv
After it runs, do this:
env - `cat ~/cronenv` /bin/sh
This assumes that your cron runs /bin/sh, which is the default regardless of the user's default shell.
Footnote: if env contains more advanced config, eg PS1=$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")$, it will error cryptically env: ": No such file or directory.
Cron provides only this environment by default :
HOME user's home directory
LOGNAME user's login
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
SHELL=/usr/bin/sh
If you need more you can source a script where you define your environment before the scheduling table in the crontab.
Couple of approaches:
Export cron env and source it:
Add
* * * * * env > ~/cronenv
to your crontab, let it run once, turn it back off, then run
env - `cat ~/cronenv` /bin/sh
And you are now inside a sh session which has cron's environment
Bring your environment to cron
You could skip above exercise and just do a . ~/.profile in front of your cron job, e.g.
* * * * * . ~/.profile; your_command
Use screen
Above two solutions still fail in that they provide an environment connected to a running X session, with access to dbus etc. For example, on Ubuntu, nmcli (Network Manager) will work in above two approaches, but still fail in cron.
* * * * * /usr/bin/screen -dm
Add above line to cron, let it run once, turn it back off. Connect to your screen session (screen -r). If you are checking the screen session has been created (with ps) be aware that they are sometimes in capitals (e.g. ps | grep SCREEN)
Now even nmcli and similar will fail.
You can run:
env - your_command arguments
This will run your_command with empty environment.
Depending on the shell of the account
sudo su
env -i /bin/sh
or
sudo su
env -i /bin/bash --noprofile --norc
From http://matthew.mceachen.us/blog/howto-simulate-the-cron-environment-1018.html
Answering six years later: the environment mismatch problem is one of the problems solved by systemd "timers" as a cron replacement. Whether you run the systemd "service" from the CLI or via cron, it receives exactly the same environment, avoiding the environment mismatch problem.
The most common issue to cause cron jobs to fail when they pass manually is the restrictive default $PATH set by cron, which is this on Ubuntu 16.04:
"/usr/bin:/bin"
By contrast, the default $PATH set by systemd on Ubuntu 16.04 is:
"/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
So there's already a better chance that a systemd timer is going to find a binary without further hassle.
The downside with systemd timers, is there's a slightly more time to set them up. You first create a "service" file to define what you want to run and a "timer" file to define the schedule to run it on and finally "enable" the timer to activate it.
Create a cron job that runs env and redirects stdout to a file.
Use the file alongside "env -" to create the same environment as a cron job.
Don't forget that since cron's parent is init, it runs programs without a controlling terminal. You can simulate that with a tool like this:
http://libslack.org/daemon/
By default, cron executes its jobs using whatever your system's idea of sh is. This could be the actual Bourne shell or dash, ash, ksh or bash (or another one) symlinked to sh (and as a result running in POSIX mode).
The best thing to do is make sure your scripts have what they need and to assume nothing is provided for them. Therefore, you should use full directory specifications and set environment variables such as $PATH yourself.
The accepted answer does give a way to run a script with the environment cron would use. As others pointed out, this is not the only needed criteria for debugging cron jobs.
Indeed, cron also uses a non-interactive terminal, without an attached input, etc.
If that helps, I have written a script that enables painlessly running a command/script as it would be run by cron. Invoke it with your command/script as first argument and you're good.
This script is also hosted (and possibly updated) on Github.
#!/bin/bash
# Run as if it was called from cron, that is to say:
# * with a modified environment
# * with a specific shell, which may or may not be bash
# * without an attached input terminal
# * in a non-interactive shell
function usage(){
echo "$0 - Run a script or a command as it would be in a cron job, then display its output"
echo "Usage:"
echo " $0 [command | script]"
}
if [ "$1" == "-h" -o "$1" == "--help" ]; then
usage
exit 0
fi
if [ $(whoami) != "root" ]; then
echo "Only root is supported at the moment"
exit 1
fi
# This file should contain the cron environment.
cron_env="/root/cron-env"
if [ ! -f "$cron_env" ]; then
echo "Unable to find $cron_env"
echo "To generate it, run \"/usr/bin/env > /root/cron-env\" as a cron job"
exit 0
fi
# It will be a nightmare to expand "$#" inside a shell -c argument.
# Let's rather generate a string where we manually expand-and-quote the arguments
env_string="/usr/bin/env -i "
for envi in $(cat "$cron_env"); do
env_string="${env_string} $envi "
done
cmd_string=""
for arg in "$#"; do
cmd_string="${cmd_string} \"${arg}\" "
done
# Which shell should we use?
the_shell=$(grep -E "^SHELL=" /root/cron-env | sed 's/SHELL=//')
echo "Running with $the_shell the following command: $cmd_string"
# Let's route the output in a file
# and do not provide any input (so that the command is executed without an attached terminal)
so=$(mktemp "/tmp/fakecron.out.XXXX")
se=$(mktemp "/tmp/fakecron.err.XXXX")
"$the_shell" -c "$env_string $cmd_string" >"$so" 2>"$se" < /dev/null
echo -e "Done. Here is \033[1mstdout\033[0m:"
cat "$so"
echo -e "Done. Here is \033[1mstderr\033[0m:"
cat "$se"
rm "$so" "$se"
Another simple way I've found (but may be error prone, I'm still testing) is to source your user's profile files before your command.
Editing a /etc/cron.d/ script:
* * * * * user1 comand-that-needs-env-vars
Would turn into:
* * * * * user1 source ~/.bash_profile; source ~/.bashrc; comand-that-needs-env-vars
Dirty, but it got the job done for me. Is there a way to simulate a login? Just a command you could run? bash --login didn't work. It sounds like that would be the better way to go though.
EDIT: This seems to be a solid solution: http://www.epicserve.com/blog/2012/feb/7/my-notes-cron-directory-etccrond-ubuntu-1110/
* * * * * root su --session-command="comand-that-needs-env-vars" user1 -l
Answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/2546509/5593430 shows how to obtain the cron environment and use it for your script. But be aware that the environment can differ depending on the crontab file you use. I created three different cron entries to save the environment via env > log. These are the results on an Amazon Linux 4.4.35-33.55.amzn1.x86_64.
1. Global /etc/crontab with root user
MAILTO=root
SHELL=/bin/bash
USER=root
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
PWD=/
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHLVL=1
HOME=/
LOGNAME=root
_=/bin/env
2. User crontab of root (crontab -e)
SHELL=/bin/sh
USER=root
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin
PWD=/root
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHLVL=1
HOME=/root
LOGNAME=root
_=/usr/bin/env
3. Script in /etc/cron.hourly/
MAILTO=root
SHELL=/bin/bash
USER=root
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
_=/bin/env
PWD=/
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHLVL=3
HOME=/
LOGNAME=root
Most importantly PATH, PWD and HOME differ. Make sure to set these in your cron scripts to rely on a stable environment.
In my case, cron was executing my script using sh, which fail to execute some bash syntax.
In my script I added the env variable SHELL:
#!/bin/bash
SHELL=/bin/bash
I don't believe that there is; the only way I know to test a cron job is to set it up to run a minute or two in the future and then wait.

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