How do you run a crontab in Cygwin on Windows? - windows

Some cygwin commands are .exe files, so you can run them with the standard Windows Scheduler, but others don't have an .exe extension so can't be run from DOS (it seems like).
For example I want updatedb to run nightly.
How do I make cron work?

You need to also install cygrunsrv so you can set cron up as a windows service, then run cron-config.
If you want the cron jobs to send email of any output you'll also need to install either exim or ssmtp (before running cron-config.)
See /usr/share/doc/Cygwin/cron-*.README for more details.
Regarding programs without a .exe extension, they are probably shell scripts of some type. If you look at the first line of the file you could see what program you need to use to run them (e.g., "#!/bin/sh"), so you could perhaps execute them from the windows scheduler by calling the shell program (e.g., "C:\cygwin\bin\sh.exe -l /my/cygwin/path/to/prog".)

You have two options:
Install cron as a windows service, using cygrunsrv:
cygrunsrv -I cron -p /usr/sbin/cron -a -n
net start cron
Note, in (very) old versions of cron you need to use -D instead of -n
The 'non .exe' files are probably bash scripts, so you can run them via the windows scheduler by invoking bash to run the script, e.g.:
C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe -l -c "./full-path/to/script.sh"

hat tip http://linux.subogero.com/894/cron-on-cygwin/
Start the cygwin-setup and add the “cron” package from the “Admin” category.
We’ll run cron as a service by user SYSTEM. Poor SYSTEM therefore needs a home directory and a shell. The “/etc/passwd” file will define them.
$ mkdir /root
$ chown SYSTEM:root /root
$ mcedit /etc/passwd
SYSTEM:*:......:/root:/bin/bash
The start the service:
$ cron-config
Do you want to remove or reinstall it (yes/no) yes
Do you want to install the cron daemon as a service? (yes/no) yes
Enter the value of CYGWIN for the daemon: [ ] ntsec
Do you want the cron daemon to run as yourself? (yes/no) no
Do you want to start the cron daemon as a service now? (yes/no) yes
Local users can now define their scheduled tasks like this (crontab will start your favourite editor):
$ crontab -e # edit your user specific cron-table HOME=/home/foo
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:$PATH
# testing - one per line
* * * * * touch ~/cron
#reboot ~/foo.sh
45 11 * * * ~/lunch_message_to_mates.sh
Domain users: it does not work. Poor cron is unable to run scheduled tasks on behalf of domain users on the machine. But there is another way: cron also runs stuff found in the system level cron table in “/etc/crontab”. So insert your suff there, so that SYSTEM does it on its own behalf:
$ touch /etc/crontab
$ chown SYSTEM /etc/crontab
$ mcedit /etc/crontab
HOME=/root
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:$PATH
* * * * * SYSTEM touch ~/cron
#reboot SYSTEM rm -f /tmp/.ssh*
Finally a few words about crontab entries. They are either environment settings or scheduled commands. As seen above, on Cygwin it’s best to create a usable PATH. Home dir and shell are normally taken from “/etc/passwd”.
As to the columns of scheduled commands see the manual page.
If certain crontab entries do not run, the best diagnostic tool is this:
$ cronevents

Just wanted to add that the options to cron seem to have changed. Need to pass -n rather than -D.
cygrunsrv -I cron -p /usr/sbin/cron -a -n

Applied the instructions from this answer and it worked
Just to point out a more copy paste like answer ( because cygwin installation procedure is kind of anti-copy-paste wise implemented )
Click WinLogo button , type cmd.exe , right click it , choose "Start As Administrator". In cmd prompt:
cd <directory_where_i_forgot_the setup-x86_64.exe> cygwin installer:
set package_name=cygrunsrv cron
setup-x86_64.exe -n -q -s http://cygwin.mirror.constant.com -P %package_name%
Ensure the installer does not throw any errors in the prompt ... If it has - you probably have some cygwin binaries running or you are not an Windows admin, or some freaky bug ...
Now in cmd promt:
C:\cygwin64\bin\cygrunsrv.exe -I cron -p /usr/sbin/cron -a -D
or whatever full file path you might have to the cygrunsrv.exe and
start the cron as windows service in the cmd prompt
net start cron
Now in bash terminal run
crontab -e
set up you cron entry an example bellow:
#sync my gdrive each 10th minute
*/10 * * * * /home/Yordan/sync_gdrive.sh
# * * * * * command to be executed
# - - - - -
# | | | | |
# | | | | +- - - - day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0)
# | | | +- - - - - month (1 - 12)
# | | +- - - - - - day of month (1 - 31)
# | +- - - - - - - hour (0 - 23)
# +--------------- minute

I figured out how to get the Cygwin cron service running automatically when I logged on to Windows 7. Here's what worked for me:
Using Notepad, create file C:\cygwin\bin\Cygwin_launch_crontab_service_input.txt with content no on the first line and yes on the second line (without the quotes). These are your two responses to prompts for cron-config.
Create file C:\cygwin\Cygwin_launch_crontab_service.bat with content:
#echo off
C:
chdir C:\cygwin\bin
bash cron-config < Cygwin_launch_crontab_service_input.txt
Add a Shortcut to the following in the Windows Startup folder:
Cygwin_launch_crontab_service.bat
See http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1401-startup-programs-change.html if you need help on how to add to Startup. BTW, you can optionally add these in Startup if you would like:
Cygwin
XWin Server
The first one executes
C:\cygwin\Cygwin.bat
and the second one executes
C:\cygwin\bin\run.exe /usr/bin/bash.exe -l -c /usr/bin/startxwin.exe

The correct syntax to install cron in cygwin as Windows service is to pass -n as argument and not -D:
cygrunsrv --install cron --path /usr/sbin/cron --args -n
-D returns usage error when starting cron in cygwin:
$
$cygrunsrv --install cron --path /usr/sbin/cron --args -D
$cygrunsrv --start cron
cygrunsrv: Error starting a service: QueryServiceStatus: Win32 error 1062:
The service has not been started.
$cat /var/log/cron.log
cron: unknown option -- D
usage: /usr/sbin/cron [-n] [-x [ext,sch,proc,parc,load,misc,test,bit]]
$
Below page has a good explanation.
Installing & Configuring the Cygwin Cron Service in Windows:
https://www.davidjnice.com/cygwin_cron_service.html
P.S. I had to run Cygwin64 Terminal on my Windows 10 PC as administrator in order to install cron as Windows service.

Getting updatedb to work in cron on Cygwin -- debugging steps
1) Make sure cron is installed.
a) Type 'cron' tab tab and look for completion help.
You should see crontab.exe, cron-config, etc. If not install cron using setup.
2) Run cron-config. Be sure to read all the ways to diagnose cron.
3) Run crontab -e
a) Create a test entry of something simple, e.g.,
"* * * * * echo $HOME >> /tmp/mycron.log" and save it.
4) cat /tmp/mycron.log. Does it show cron environment variable HOME
every minute?
5) Is HOME correct? By default mine was /home/myusername; not what I wanted.
So, I added the entry
"HOME='/cygdrive/c/documents and settings/myusername'" to crontab.
6) Once assured the test entry works I moved on to 'updatedb' by
adding an entry in crontab.
7) Since updatedb is a script, errors of sed and find showed up in
my cron.log file. In the error line, the absolute path of sed referenced
an old version of sed.exe and not the one in /usr/bin. I tried changing my
cron PATH environment variable but because it was so long crontab
considered the (otherwise valid) change to be an error. I tried an
explicit much-shorter PATH command, including what I thought were the essential
WINDOWS paths but my cron.log file was empty. Eventually I left PATH alone and
replaced the old sed.exe in the other path with sed.exe from /usr/bin.
After that updatedb ran to completion. To reduce the number of
permission error lines I eventually ended up with this:
"# Run updatedb at 2:10am once per day skipping Sat and Sun'
"10 2 * * 1-5 /usr/bin/updatedb --localpaths='/cygdrive/c' --prunepaths='/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS'"
Notes: I ran cron-config several times throughout this process
to restart the cygwin cron daemon.

Related

Kill process via sh script called by crontab

i wrote a sh file which kills a tomcat process, suppose my shell scrip is in /usr/temp, script looks likethat:
#!/bin/bash
ps -Af | grep "tomcat_something" | grep -v grep | awk '{print$2}' | xargs sudo kill -9
then i created a cron via crontab -e My cron looks likethat (dont pay attention to the time):
10 10 * * * /usr/temp/myshellscript.sh
If i run the sh without cron it works fine, but via cron is not working at all.
I even tryied to run the same shell script with a touch file command and in this case cron works fine, so my doubt is that the problem is the kill command. Can someone help ?
Problem:
sudo in cron job does not work as it expects a password to be entered.
Possible Solutions
Not Recommended as require to give password in plaintext.
Use expect (Quick google or SO search will help you) in your script
and provide sudo's password there.
Run your script as sudo instead of running sudo inside script
In your own crontab, write your command like so:
10 10 * * * echo "your password" | sudo -S /usr/temp/myshellscript.sh
Again, it is not recommended
Best Possible Way: Use roots crontab (only if you have access)
Run the following command:
sudo crontab -e
This opens up root's crontab. sudo is not necessary to run your command in this context since it'll be invoked as root anyway.

Running a Shell Script as a Cronjob

I have a written a shell script to automate a build process.
The script checksout some code from an SVN repo, compiles and builds the code before extracting the built binary files and storing these in a central location.
I can manually execute the script ./autobuild.sh and it runs perfectly. There are a few sudo commands executed throughout the script, but I echo the password through for the first sudo command and the password holds for the entire time:
echo mypassword! | sudo -S make clean
When I add executing the script as a crontab it fails to complete all the tasks. I've tried to add it as a cronjob for the normal and root users.
Running crontab -e on my normal user account, I want the script to run at ten past midnight every day:
10 0 * * * /home/username/autobuild.sh
Also running a 32-but Cent OS 7 install with all the latest updates installed.
Can anyone provide any suggestions as to why it might work manually but not when run through a cron?
Try this
10 0 * * * /bin/bash /home/username/autobuild.sh
Step 1. find bash path
:~# whereis bash
Output
bash: /usr/bin/bash
step 2. create sh file add the line on top replace with your bash path
#!/usr/bin/bash
step 3. Make the script executable with command chmod +x .
step 4. add cron like this in for every minute to test
crontab -e
*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/bash ~/backup.sh >>test.log

Crontab not really running as root when it should be?

I have Ubuntu and am running under the user "alex". I've got the following bash script running as root with crontab however it sends me an email and it looks like it hasn't run correctly as the result is not present:
/dev/sda - Reallocated_Sector_Ct is
However if I run the crontab job manually from webmin, it works without issues. But when it's scheduled to run, that's when it fails. Maybe it's not really running as root?
Here's my code:
#!/bin/bash
SMARTCHECK=`smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep "Reallocated_Sector_Ct" | awk 'NR==1 {print $10}'`
echo "/dev/sda - Reallocated_Sector_Ct is $SMARTCHECK"
if [ "$SMARTCHECK" != "0" ]; then
mail -s "Failing: /dev/sda" alex <<< "/dev/sda - Reallocated_Sector_Ct is $SMARTCHECK"
fi
Thanks!
There are two possibilities to run scripts using cron:
You use system crontab /etc/crontab. In this case they run as root.
You use users' crontabs, which are accessible using crontab -e. In this case they run with privileges of the user, that has added the command to his crontab.
more possible issues in cronjob scripting.
change all commands in script with full path, especially the command smartctl
check your system has /bin/bash, not /usr/bin/bash, or set the cronjob as:
0 * * * * ~/.profile;/usr/bin/bash YOUR_SCRIPT
check the mail in alex account, if there are any error messages can be found.

script working manually but not via crontab?

Wondered if anyone had any idea why the following problem is occurring, or had any tips where to look…I can run the shell script manually in ssh, but if I set it up to run in crontab i get the problems below.
Server is: FreeBSD 8, and I have access to all root permissions
I have a shell script (Bourne) that runs under the “root” permissions using crontab with the following command:
* * * * * /data/backups/scripts/server_log_check.sh > /data/backups/logs/cron_logs/server_log_check.sh_cron.log
The “server_log_check.sh” script checks to see if “the report server” is running with this command:
if ps -xauww | grep -v grep | grep java | grep www > /dev/null
then
#“reports are running, no need to try to restart it”
Else
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/tomcat55 start #start report server because it is not running
Fi
The problem is occurring on this line: “/usr/local/etc/rc.d/tomcat55 start”, when the script is run using crontab, but if I run the script manually via ssh this line of code runs without a problem, but all the rest of the code in the script executes fine, just not this line. Allternatively, if I paste this line /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tomcat55 start into the ssh command prompt, it runs just fine too.
I changed the “server_log_check.sh” ownership to be “root”, but that didn’t make a difference, and the script "tomcat55" ownership is "www". The crontab entry is being made under the "Root" profile, so, I assumed there is no problem running a file that is owned by a lessor permission such as "www" has
Do you have any ideas why cron is doing this?
Thanks in advance
Try adding the following which will add the error to the log file as well:
* * * * * /data/backups/scripts/server_log_check.sh > /data/backups/logs/cron_logs/server_log_check.sh_cron.log 2>&1
Also change this:
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/tomcat55 start
to:
cd /home/root
nohup /usr/local/etc/rc.d/tomcat55 start &
This should create a nohup.out in /home/root.

Cron job does not start [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
CronJob not running
(19 answers)
Closed last month.
I have a cron job that I want to execute every 5 minutes:
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /scr_temp/scheduleSpider.sh
In /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
The cron should execute a shell script:
#!/bin/sh
if [ ! -f "sync.txt" ]; then
touch "sync.txt"
chmod 777 /scr_temp
curl someLink
fi
That works fine from command line but not from cron. However the cron itself is startet but the script does not start.
I read about the path problem but I dont really understand it. I setup a cron that writes some env data to a file. This is the output:
HOME=/root
LOGNAME=root
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin
SHELL=/bin/sh
If I execute the env command in command line I get following output for PATH
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
What path do I have to set in my shell script?
Your $PATH is fine; leave it alone. On Ubuntu, all the commands you're invoking (touch, chmod, curl) are in /bin and/or /usr/bin.
How did you set up the cron job? Did you run crontab some-file as root?
It seems that /etc/crontab is the usual mechanism for running cron commands as root. On my Ubuntu system, sudo crontab -l says no crontab for root. Running crontab as root, as you would for any non-root account, should be ok, but you might consider using /etc/crontab instead. Note that it uses a different syntax than an ordinary crontab, as explained in the comments at the top of /etc/crontab:
$ head -5 /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
# and files in /etc/cron.d. These files also have username fields,
# that none of the other crontabs do.
Run sudo crontab -l. Does it show your command?
Temporarily modify your script so it always produces some visible output. For example, add the following right after the #!/bin/sh:
echo "Running scheduleSpider.sh at \`date\`" >> /tmp/scheduleSpider.sh.log
and see what's in /tmp/scheduleSpider.sh.log after a few minutes. (You can set the command to run every minute so you don't have to wait as long for results.) If that works (it should), you can add more echo commands to your script to see in detail what it's doing.
It looks like your script is designed to run only once; it creates the sync.txt file to prevent it from running again. That could be the root (ahem) of your problem. What that your intent? Did you mean to delete sync.txt after running the command, and just forgot to do it?
root's home directory on Ubuntu is /root. The first time your script runs, it should create /root/sync.txt. Does that file exist? If so, how old is it?
Note that curl someLink (assuming someLink is a valid URL) will just dump the content from the specified link to standard output. Was that your intent (it will show up as e-mail to root? Or did you just not show us the entire command?
First: you can substitute the first field with */5 (see man 5 crontab)
Second: have cron mail the output to your email address by entering MAILTO=your#email.address in your crontab. If the script has any output, it'll be mailed. Instead of that, you may have a local mailbox in which you can find the cron output (usually $MAIL).
A better syntax for you CRON is
*/5 * * * * /scr_temp/scheduleSpider.sh
Also, check the authority of your scheduleSpider.sh file. Cron runs under a different user than the one you are likely executing your program interactively, so it may be that cron does not have authority. Try chmod 777 for now, just to check.
I suggest to:
check that /scr_temp/scheduleSpider.sh has executable bit
set PATH properly inside your script or use absolute path to command (/bin/touch instead of touch)
specify absolute path to sync.txt file (or calculate it relatively to script)
Have you added the comand via crontab -e or just by editing the crontab file? You should use crontab -e to get it correctly updated.
Set the working directory in the cron script, it probably doesn't execute the things where you think it should.
You should add /bin/sh before the absolute path of your script.
*/5 * * * * /bin/sh /scr_temp/scheduleSpider.sh

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