Troubleshooting Cron (on Linux)

Almost everyone has had 'those' issue running scripts with cron at some stage in their development.  Your shiny new script runs perf...



Almost everyone has had 'those' issue running scripts with cron at some stage in their development.  Your shiny new script runs perfectly on the command line, but try to run it as a cron task and all you hear is crickets?  Rest assured, you aren't alone!  

Often with issues like this it is related to the environment or permissions when the cron job runs. Below are some simple and quite often overlooked troubleshooting steps to try and get you automated.

  • Use absolute paths: Ensure that all paths used in your script are absolute paths. This includes file paths for any files the script reads from or writes to.

  • Check permissions: Make sure that the cron job has the necessary permissions to execute the script and access any files it needs. You can set the permissions using chmod if necessary.

  • Redirect output: Redirect the output of the cron job to a file so you can see any error messages or output generated by the script. You can do this by appending >> /path/to/logfile 2>&1 to the cron job command.

  • Check the shebang line: Ensure that the first line of your Python script contains the correct path to the Python interpreter. It should look something like #!/usr/bin/env python3.  You can find the correct path to your Python interpreter by using the which command in the terminal eg.
    which python3

  • Check for errors: If the script is not running as expected, add some logging or error handling to the script itself so you can see what's happening when it runs.

  • Environment variables: Cron jobs run in a minimal environment, so it's possible that some environment variables that your script relies on are not set. You can set these variables explicitly in your cron job script or source your .bashrc or .bash_profile file at the beginning of your cron job script.
Once you've checked these things, try running the cron job again and see if it works. If you're still having trouble, check the log file you created for any error messages that might give you a clue as to what's going wrong.

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Auki Henry: Troubleshooting Cron (on Linux)
Troubleshooting Cron (on Linux)
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