Subject: Re: Cron on Windows 7 as a Service Does Not Execute Jobs
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1077)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
From: Janos Szatmary <randomerror AT yahoo DOT com>
In-Reply-To: <0KTF005VJVXCFSS9@vms173013.mailsrvcs.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:53:04 -0500
Cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-Id: <0A68F03B-FFCD-4A8D-9580-B70FBD216D02@yahoo.com>
References: <9E6BBE7F-3D5F-4DC5-B701-367AC5DF9C14 AT yahoo DOT com> <0KTF005VJVXCFSS9 AT vms173013 DOT mailsrvcs DOT net>
To: "Pierre A. Humblet" <Pierre DOT Humblet AT ieee DOT org>
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

This is CYGWIN_NT-6.1 host 1.5.25(0.156/4/2) 2008-06-12 19:34 i686 Cygwin
Since this was a test for a stable environment I didn't want to use a beta =
release.

Yes, "user" is the user name, which I created specifically for testing (you=
 may notice some output shows "janos" which is my actual account I started =
with)
There was a successful setuid to the non-privileged user account in the str=
ace.

I have also...
	Uninstalled and reinstalled cron through cygrunsrv several times.
	Reset all the permissions on cyg_server user with editrights from the cron=
-config script
=09
I'm not sure if 1.5 support will continue and wether W7/32 compatibility is=
 important for the release, so I'll try 1.7 and see if it has the same issu=
es.
Thanks for the quick response. If you want me to debug 1.5 further, or woul=
d like the full strace output let me know. Otherwise, I'll post 1.7 results=
 just as an FYI.

Regards,

John

On Nov 20, 2009, at 10:20 PM, Pierre A. Humblet wrote:

> At 06:43 PM 11/20/2009, randomerror wrote:
>> All,
>>=20
>> I can't seem to get cron to execute jobs under Windows 7 (Ultimate.) Her=
e are the things I've done...
>>=20
>> ----------------------------------------
>> Installed cygwin for all users, and fixed some permission problems.
>> Configured sshd and it works fine.
>> Configured exim (without running it as a service) and it works fine (del=
ivers mail through a smart host).
>>=20
>> ----------------------------------------
>> Configured cron through cron-config running under cyg_server (that was c=
reated by sshd,) and it runs but does not execute jobs.
>> Cronevents shows that the job commands are running, but in reality they =
are not:
>>=20
>> 2009/11/20 17:49:02 [cyg_server] /usr/sbin/cron: PID 4080: (user) CMD (e=
cho test)
>> 2009/11/20 17:50:01 [cyg_server] /usr/sbin/cron: PID 4028: (user) CMD (e=
cho test)
>> 2009/11/20 17:53:01 [cyg_server] /usr/sbin/cron: PID 3384: (user) CMD (s=
leep 30)
>> 2009/11/20 17:54:01 [cyg_server] /usr/sbin/cron: PID 1404: (user) CMD (s=
leep 30)
>> 2009/11/20 18:24:01 [cyg_server] /usr/sbin/cron: PID 3928: (user) CMD (e=
cho test > /tmp/abcd)
>> 2009/11/20 18:25:01 [cyg_server] /usr/sbin/cron: PID 2004: (user) CMD (e=
cho test > /tmp/abcd)
>>=20
>> The sleep job was to test whether I can see the job run with ps; I could=
 not.
>>=20
>> ----------------------------------------
>> So I ran cron from the command line (starting MinTTY as an Administrator=
) as follows:
>>=20
>> /usr/sbin/cron -n -x ext,sch,proc,pars,load,misc,bit
>>=20
>> This worked: jobs were being executed and output was e-mailed via exim.
>>=20
>> ----------------------------------------
>> Next, I tried to run cron as SYSTEM but that of course failed, with cron=
 starting and immediately stopping.
>> Lastly, I used strace to attach to the running cron service, which works=
 up until the point that the job execution would begin:
>>=20
>> $ ps -ef
>>     UID     PID    PPID TTY     STIME COMMAND
>> cyg_serv    3752       1   ?  13:53:57 /usr/bin/cygrunsrv
>> cyg_serv    2172    3752   ?  13:53:57 /usr/sbin/sshd
>> cyg_serv    1020       1   ?  17:47:17 /usr/bin/cygrunsrv
>> cyg_serv    1144    1020   ?  17:47:17 /usr/sbin/cron
>>   janos    3240       1   ?  18:28:21 /usr/bin/mintty
>>   janos    1168    3240   0  18:28:22 /usr/bin/bash
>>   janos    2192    1168   0  18:29:58 /usr/bin/ps
>>=20
>> user AT host ~
>> $ strace -f -p 1144
>> **********************************************
>> Program name: C:\cygwin\usr\sbin\cron.exe (pid 1144, ppid 1020)
>> App version:  1005.24, api: 0.156
>> DLL version:  1005.25, api: 0.156
>> DLL build:    2008-06-12 19:34
>> OS version:   Windows NT-6.1
>> Heap size:    402653184
>> Date/Time:    2009-11-20 18:35:19
>> **********************************************
>> .
>> .
>> .
>>  183 42989963 [main] cron 3012 build_env: envp 0x61169EB0, envc 28
>>   46 42990009 [main] cron 3012 child_info::child_info: subproc_ready 0x1=
98
>> 8151 42998160 [main] cron 3012 spawn_guts: 3012 =3D spawn_guts (/bin/sh,=
 C:\cygwin\bin\sh.exe -c "/bin/echo test")
>>   98 42998258 [main] cron 3012! spawn_guts: new process name C:\cygwin\b=
in\sh.exe
>>  135 42998393 [main] cron 3012! _pinfo::dup_proc_pipe: duped wr_proc_pip=
e 0x4 for pid 3012(2056)
>> Windows process 4080 attached
>> Windows process 3004 attached
>> Windows process 3012 attached
>> strace: couldn't attach to subprocess 2056 for debugging, windows error 5
>>=20
>> This crashes cron, so it needs to be restarted.
>>=20
>> ----------------------------------------
>> Does anybody have any pointers on what else to check or how else to diag=
nose why the jobs are not running?
>>=20
>> Regards,
>>=20
>> John
>=20
> You have done everything right, AFAICS, and a pretty good debugging job.
> I see "user" in the log, is that an actual user name ?
>=20
> Except for that, as far as cron is concerned, everything looks OK.
> Presumably you have seen a successful setuid in the strace.
> Cron prints the log line and execs sh, without checking if it succeeds, b=
ut there
> is nothing it can do about that. It's a cygwin issue.
> Presumably you are using 1.7
> Unfortunately I don't have Windows 7 to reproduce the problem.
>=20
> Not sure what to suggest. Perhaps running "strace  cron" as a service
> would give you more info. That will fill /var/log/cron.log pretty fast :)
>=20
>=20
> Pierre (cron maintainer)
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20=20
>=20
> --
> Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
> FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
> Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
> Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple


--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple