How to make a cronjobbable script to clock uploads? - bash

Question

I asked a similar question over here:(Upload clocking script), but then changed it and realized it's a different question now.
I want to make a script called uploadtimer.sh which uploads files to various hosts and then notes the time the upload takes in a log file. Thanks to those who have helped me, I have a partial solution but I'm stuck:
I used this as a crontab (testing it for the first ten minutes after 11 am)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 11 * * * /usr/bin/time -a /usr/local/apache/sites/$MYEMPLOYER/upload_test/output.log /usr/local/apache/sites/$MYEMPLOYER/upload_test/uploadtimer.sh
upload_test/ has these files in it:
upload_test/output.log
upload_test/uploadtest.gif
upload_test/uploadtimer.sh
output.log is a text file that I renamed as a .log file. It's blank. Before I put it there, I was getting messages that said "this file doesn't exist". I thought it'd create one for me but I guess not. After I created it, it kept saying in the crontab mails that I couldn't write to it until I changed its permissions, so I did.
uploadtest.gif is a gif
uploadtimer.sh is this:
#!/bin/sh
HOST='--myhost--'
USER='--login--'
PASSWD='--password--'
FILE='uploadtest.gif'
ftp -n $HOST <<END_SCRIPT
quote USER $USER
quote PASS $PASSWD
put $FILE
quit
END_SCRIPT
exit 0
The message that cron sends to me is:
0.00user 0.00system 0:00.02elapsed 0%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (0major+253minor)pagefaults 0swaps
But no ftp has taken place and nothing it written in output.log.

Answer 1

Create another script that runs the second command. Call the second script from cron.
You will need to make sure you are using absolute paths for everthing because cron starts in a different directory than the script.

Answer 2

Your questions:
Where do I put this part, which tells it to save the data to a log?
You edit your crontab file to add a cron entry. The cron entry contains information regarding what command to run and when to run it. For example, here is a cron entry that you might use:
0 2 * * * /usr/bin/time -a ~/output.log ~/uploadtimer.sh
This entry says to run the command at 2AM every day (minute 0, hour 2, every day of the month, every month, every day of the week). For more info on the crontab syntax, you can check out http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm .
To make a cron entry, use the command crontab -e which will load up a vi text editor. Enter the line above and then save it. This creates the cron job. If you don't know vi, just follow this:
from the shell, enter crontab -e to start editing
press i to enter Insert mode
enter the line as above
press ESC to exit Insert mode
press : to switch to Command mode - you will see the cursor at the bottom of the screen
enter wq and hit Enter - this Writes and Quits the file. You should see a message like crontab: installing new crontab.
If you run into any problems using vi, use ESC a few times to exit whatever mode it's in, do : to enter Command mode, and then q! to force a quit (i.e., quit without saving anything), and then try again from the beginning.
It refers to the script itself so does it need to be separate from the script?
Yes.

Answer 3

You might want to check out "ncftp". It would condense your upload command into "ncftpput -u $USER -p $PASSWD $HOST / $FILE", and then you wouldn't need the script at all, just put the whole command into your crontab:
0 2 * * * /usr/bin/time -a ~/output.log ncftpput -u $USER -p $PASSWD $HOST / $FILE