Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com X-Authentication-Warning: slinky.cs.nyu.edu: pechtcha owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 15:00:41 -0500 (EST) From: Igor Pechtchanski Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com To: "Thompson, Blake" cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: Cron runs, but commands are not executing. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: Importance: Normal MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Thompson, Blake wrote: > Folks, > I have tried to tackle this by myself and with the help of all the others > that have been trying to resolve similar issues via this newsgroup. I have > come across several instances where people were finally able to claim > victory and tried their options, but to no avail (although, I've come > further in my travels than I was before). > > Platform: Windows XP Pro > Cygwin is installed as 'all users.' > > The server has been started/stopped/started and uninstalled/reinstalled a > ton of times. I am able to verify that cron is running as a service via the > event log and when attempting to start it I get the message that it is > already running. I have reinstalled cron a few times, as well. > > My crontab is as follows: > > > A325771 AT DA604290 /var/cron > $ crontab -l > # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall. > # (/tmp/crontab.3308 installed on Wed Nov 26 13:51:07 2003) > # (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 1.7 2003/04/15 15:13:41 corinna Exp $) > * * * * * date >> ~/date.txt Try using "/bin/date >> /tmp/date.txt" instead. Tilde-expansion may not be available, and PATH may not be set correctly. > (I have also tried executing a shell script versus a single command). > > I've run cron_diagnose.sh with no issues (output below) > [snip] > (By the way, I did all the stuff mentioned in the script output. Multiple > times.) > > I am not able to see where any output has been generated. However, when > reviewing the event log, I come across the following entries (they appear to > be grouped in 2's): > > Event Type: Information > Event Source: /USR/SBIN/CRON > Event Category: None > Event ID: 0 > Date: 11/26/2003 > Time: 2:14:00 PM > User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM > Computer: DA604290 > Description: > The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( /USR/SBIN/CRON ) cannot be > found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or > message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be > able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and > Support for details. The following information is part of the event: > /USR/SBIN/CRON : PID 948 : (A325771) CMD (date >> ~/date.txt). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This last line is the only important part. It says that cron attempted to execute the command. > Event Type: Information > Event Source: /USR/SBIN/CRON > Event Category: None > Event ID: 0 > Date: 11/26/2003 > Time: 2:14:06 PM > User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM > Computer: DA604290 > Description: > The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( /USR/SBIN/CRON ) cannot be > found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or > message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be > able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and > Support for details. The following information is part of the event: > /USR/SBIN/CRON : PID 608 : (A325771) MAIL (mailed 48 bytes of output but got status 0x0001). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This shows that there was some output generated by the command you tried to execute (most likely on stderr). Since you didn't redirect stderr in your command, cron attempted to mail it to you, and since you're not running a mail server, that attempt failed. > I know that this is probably a doink problem that has a quickie solution, > but I have read all the README's, man pages, and 2 years worth of cygwin > posts, but am not able to find what could be causing the issue. Please, > show me the error of my ways. > > Blake Try redirecting stderr from your cron command as well. Most likely cron couldn't find "date" (incorrect PATH setting), or couldn't access "~/date.txt" (no tilde expansion). Igor -- http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/ |\ _,,,---,,_ pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D. '---''(_/--' `-'\_) fL a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-. Meow! "I have since come to realize that being between your mentor and his route to the bathroom is a major career booster." -- Patrick Naughton -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/