TIPS cron script ...

[womble1]

Hi, I'd like to run a cron script I would like to set this up using a terminal session... how can I do that ?

 

[synack]

Depends on your version of linux, however most have /etc/cron.d/daily, weekly, hourly... folders where you can place an executable script file that will run on its folder's predefined schedule.

Others will require you to login to the session as the user you want your script to run as, and type: crontab -e
For this you will need to google the crontab format or try here

an example would be:
1 * * * * /usr/bin/who >> /var/log/who.log
would run the program 'who' every hour at the 1 minute mark and append the output to a log file.
*/5 * * * * would run every 5 minutes.

I'm assuming of course you know how to make a script, and make that script executable.

 

[womble1]

Well I'm using Pbxinaflash distro.....

 

[Trimline2]

Bring up your Webmin and go to System --> Scheduled Cron Jobs. You can add and update cron jobs easily there.

 

[womble1]

Last time I did that it didn't work so I thought I'd use the command line.

 

[synack]

Well I'm using Pbxinaflash distro.....

Would that be centos, ubuntu, redhat, scientific, or one of the various "little" computer linuxes? lol

Anyway for a standard centos, you can run 'crontab -e'
also there are:
/etc/crontab
/etc/cron.d/*
/etc/cron.daily/*
/etc/cron.weekly/*
/etc/cron.hourly/*

and as a variation, 'crontab -u username -e' where username is the user context your script should run under. (because we shouldn't run everything under root they say.)

Any of them should work. If your script isn't running, it's likely a permissions issue. redirecting your scripts output to a log file is very helpful ( 2>&1 >>somelogfile.log)