Script Doesn't Work Correctly with Cron

[Igor Pechtchanski]

On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, Buck Turgidson wrote:

> I have a script that works when I run it from the command line, but when it
> is executed with cron, it produces a null file.  I am sure that cron is
> executing it because it creates the file.  It is just not populated.
>
> Here is the script.  I want to query an Oracle database every couple of
> minutes, capture some data, and append it to a flat file.  I want to keep
> 2000 lines in the flat file.
>
> Can someone spot the error?  Again, it works run from the command line.
>
> #!/bin/bash
> sqlplus -s  scott@mydb < up @ss.sql | grep -v "Enter password:" >>
> monsql.lst
> tail -2000 monsql.lst  > montemp.lst
> rm -f monsql.lst
> mv montemp.lst  monsql.lst

This is probably not cron-specific, but try redirecting stderr to a file
(by using "2>filename") to see if the script produces any errors.  Also,
are all the programs you use (sqlplus, grep, tail, rm, mv) in the path for
the user that cron runs as (most likely "system")?  Are they executable by
"system"?
	Igor
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