How to use Cron ?
Forum: HD Install
Topic: How to use Cron ?
started by: manishsadh
Posted by manishsadh on April 03 2007,14:23
Hi Folks,my system - dsl 3.2 frugal
need some help with running cron.
i edited the /etc/crontab file and
added the following
0 10 * * * * /home/dsl/xx.sh
then i ran the MyCron from system -> control panel.
at 10 am the scheduled script didnt run.
what i am i missing ? is there a specific cron howto for dsl ?
thanks.
Posted by robc on April 04 2007,16:47
manishsadh, you can have cron output to a file, including errors, to view. To do this use the following line in your crontab:| Code Sample |
| 0 10 * * * * /home/dsl/xx.sh >> /path/to/output/file 2>&1 |
I am having trouble with cron also. It runs, but will not open gui applications. When I use the following line in the crontab:
| Code Sample |
| * * * * * * beaver & >> /tmp/crontest 2>&1 |
The application does not open and I get this in nohup.out:
| Quote |
| Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: |
I get similar results for all gui applications that I try to open with cron. All the applications do run when I use Aterm or click on an icon.
Though they will run if I use the following line in crontab instead:
| Code Sample |
| * * * * * * xterm -e beaver & >> /tmp/crontest 2>&1 |
but then I have an extra xterm window open that I don't want.
I'm not sure if this is a problem with gtk or with cron.
I also tryed using cron to start a script that would call a gui program and I got the same results. the script would run, but the application I wanted to start did not.
Does anyone know of a fix for this or have any guidance for this situation?
Thanks
Rob
Posted by jimmit on April 11 2007,22:12
I was having the same problem.I had a shell script that used xset to turn the screen off. I had to launch the script with /bin/bash instead of sh and I had to add "export DISPLAY=:0" to the beginning of my shell script.
In your case you may want to create a script such as this...
| Code Sample |
| #!bin/bash export DISPLAY=:0 beaver & |
I hope that helps!
-James
Posted by robc on April 12 2007,14:38
jimmit,I added the export line to my script and now it works with cron.
Thank you for the tip.
Rob