If-else-statement is working wrong in crontab? - bash

Question

When i use this:
*/5 6-18 * * 1-6 [ "$(ls -A /DIR_WHERE_FILES_ARE_OR_NOT/)" ] &&
rsync -au /DIR_WHERE_FILES_ARE_OR_NOT/ /DIR_WHERE_FILES_SHOLD_GO; \
mv /DIR_WHERE_FILES_ARE_OR_NOT/* /SAVE_DIR/ ||
mail -s "DIR IS EMPTY" myemail#klkldkl.de <<< "message"
i get two mails:
mv: cannot stat `/DIR_WHERE_FILES_ARE_OR_NOT/*': No such file or
directory
and
"DIR IS EMPTY"
Why?

Answer 1

You get
mv: cannot stat `/DIR_WHERE_FILES_ARE_OR_NOT/*': No such file or directory
for exactly the reason stated: that directory is empty, hence it does not contain a file named * (asterisk). It's just the way glob expansion works in the shell: if the glob doesn't match anything it is passed literally to the command. Since mv attemps to rename a non-existing file, it complains as shown.
This would all be much more readable, if instead of a sequence of && and || operators in a crontab you would place the whole logic in a script with equivalent if/else/fi constructs and just call the script from cron.
You get two mails because you explicitly send the first with mail -s. The second is from cron because the output on stderr and stdout is not empty.
Your commands are equivalent to
if [ "$(ls ...)" ]; then
rsync
fi
if ! mv; then
mail
fi
Note that there is no else.

Answer 2

Just like user Jens already mentioned, and also from my experience, unless you are using a very simple and usually single command, you should stick to script files. So, in your case, I would go with a script file. I'll give you an example.
#!/bin/bash
dir_where_files_are_or_not=/filespath
dir_where_files_should_go=/another/filespath
save_dir=/savefiles/path
# ok, lets start by checking if dir contains files
if [ "$(ls -A $dir_where_files_are_or_not)" ]; then
# dir contains files, so lets rsync and mv them
rsync -au $dir_where_files_are_or_not/ $dir_where_files_should_go
mv $dir_where_files_are_or_not/* $save_dir
else
# dir is empty, lets send email
mail -s "DIR IS EMPTY" myemail#klkldkl.de <<< "message"
fi
Now, I just put this code in a file. Give it a name, for example "chkfiles" and save it in a directory (I use /usr/local/sbin for all of my scripts).
Next, in a shell, run the command chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/chkfiles to make the file executable. Then add the script to your crontab.
I would suggest the following line inside crontab:
*/5 6-18 * * 1-6 /bin/bash /usr/local/sbin/chkfiles
I used /bin/bash to call the right interpreter for this script. It should now work as expected.
Important Notes:
Before running the script, you need to change the dir_where_files_are_or_not, dir_where_files_should_go and save_dir vars to your needs.
Do NOT include trailing slashes in the dirs, otherwise the rsync and mv might not do what you really want
Regards

Answer 3

You get two mails because when mv fails, cron captures what is written to standard error and mails it to the owner, then runs the mail command. You can suppress the error message from mv to avoid the mail from cron.
mv /DIR_WHERE_FILES_ARE_OR_NOT/* /SAVE_DIR/ 2> /dev/null || mail -s "DIR IS EMPTY" myemail#klkldkl.de <<< "message"