X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,BOTNET,KHOP_RCVD_UNTRUST,KHOP_THREADED,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_NO,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_W,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_WL,RCVD_IN_HOSTKARMA_YE X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Message-id: <50248A39.1040209@cygwin.com> Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:12:41 -0400 From: "Larry Hall (Cygwin)" Reply-to: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:14.0) Gecko/20120713 Thunderbird/14.0 MIME-version: 1.0 To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: running interactive process on xp through cron not working References: <1344396878 DOT 20779 DOT 140661112064606 DOT 7AB245A7 AT webmail DOT messagingengine DOT com> In-reply-to: <1344396878.20779.140661112064606.7AB245A7@webmail.messagingengine.com> Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Id: 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 On 8/9/2012 9:15 PM, Mark Smith wrote: > so I am trying to run notepad through cron on my xp machine, but it > simply won't work. > > running cron-config works fine: > --- > $ cron-config > Cron is already installed as a service under account LocalSystem. > Do you want to remove or reinstall it? (yes/no) yes > OK. The cron service was removed. > > Do you want to install the cron daemon as a service? (yes/no) yes > Enter the value of CYGWIN for the daemon: [ ] ntsec > > You must decide under what account the cron daemon will run. > If you are the only user on this machine, the daemon can run as > yourself. > This gives access to all network drives but only allows you as user. > Otherwise cron should run under the local system account. > It will be capable of changing to other users without requiring a > password, using one of the three methods detailed in > [cut out to trick anti-spam-bot] > Do you want the cron daemon to run as yourself? (yes/no) no > > > Running cron_diagnose ... > ... no problem found. > > Do you want to start the cron daemon as a service now? (yes/no) yes > OK. The cron daemon is now running. > > In case of problem, examine the log file for cron, > /var/log/cron.log, and the appropriate syslog file > for information about the problem cron is having. > > Examine also any cron.log file in the HOME directory > (or the file specified in MAILTO) and cron related files in /tmp. > > If you cannot fix the problem, then report it to [cut out to trick > anti-spam-bot]. > Please run the script /usr/bin/cronbug and ATTACH its output > (the file cronbug.txt) to your e-mail. > > WARNING: PATH may be set differently under cron than in interactive > shells. > Names such as "find" and "date" may refer to Windows programs. > --- > my crontab: > --- > * * * * * touch /tmp/crontab.working > --- > After doing this, my cron job seems to execute fine, the timestamp of > /tmp/crontab.working updates every minute. > > However, when I set the cron service to allow to interact with the > desktop (start-run-services.msc-cron-Log On-Allow service to interact > with desktop), my crontab stops executing, even though cron continues to > be running. Even after restarting cron, my crontab does not execute, my > /tmp/crontab.working timestamp remains untouched. > > running cronevents.exe to see the eventlog of cron, the touch command > seems to get executed, but there is no error, and the timestamp does not > update which leads me to believe that somehow windows prevents the > command to be executed, even though cron does seem to issue the > command... > > Any ideas on how to make cron work to allow me run programs > interactively like notepad? To be honest, making this work is tenuous at best. MS doesn't want things to work this way anymore because it's viewed as a security hole (arguably a valid point). If you're running XP, then you have a better chance but, as you've noticed, it's not guaranteed either. And it will most certainly stop working if you move to a later O/S version. I know. Not what you wanted to hear and some additional research and perseverance on your part may unearth a solution that works for you. But there's no magic bullet here, sorry. -- Larry _____________________________________________________________________ A: Yes. > Q: Are you sure? >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. >>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email? -- 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