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crontab shell script execution not as expected

kevincw01

6/9/24, 9:14 PM

I have a script named run_logs.sh with the contents:

#!/bin/bash
source /root/.profile
zcat /var/log/apache2/access.log.*.gz | /usr/bin/goaccess - access.log

when I run that script as root (both with and without a 'bash' prefix', on the command line the goaccess software processes both access.log and all of the gzipped logs. But when cron runs it, it only processes the access.log. What can I do to correct this?

My root crontab looks like:

0 * * * * /root/run_logs.sh

2 + 8

shell

bash

cron

goaccess

Paul

6/10/24, 2:41 AM

What happens if you just put the script directly in crontab?

Romeo Ninov

6/10/24, 4:16 AM

Add full path to `goaccess` and set environment variables.

kevincw01

6/10/24, 3:02 PM

updated to reflect suggestions from Zareh which are technically correct but didn't resolve it.

kevincw01

6/10/24, 3:02 PM

@Paul No difference.

kevincw01

6/10/24, 3:04 PM

@RomeoNinov I updated to reflect the full path to access and it did not make a difference. What environment variables are you suggesting I should set to resolve this?

Romeo Ninov

6/10/24, 3:21 PM

@kevincw01m the variables you have in your shell environment. Try to add on the begin of script (after shebang) `source /path/to/your/home/directory/.bash_profile` and check again

kevincw01

6/10/24, 4:03 PM

I do not have .bash_profile but I did find .profile and I added that and there was no change. I also tried adding source .bashrc there was also no change

kevincw01

6/10/24, 4:25 PM

As a note, the goaccess parameters above are over simplified so as to not add unnecessary complexity. The key is to use the hyphen when used as a cron job.

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kevincw01

6/10/24, 4:23 PM

The solution was found here which essentially says that goaccess has a specific requirement to add a hyphen in the parameters to process multiple files. However for some reason, it works without this when run on the command line and not when run in cron. I've updated the correct command in the OP to reflect the additional goaccess parameter.

+ 0

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Zareh Kasparian

6/10/24, 8:23 AM

Change your script as below.

Add #!/bin/bash, at the beginning of a script, indicating that the script should be executed using the Bash shell.

#!/bin/bash 
 zcat /var/log/apache2/access.log.*.gz | goaccess access.log

Make the script executable.

chmod +x /root/run_logs.sh

Update your crontab entry to point directly to the script.

0 * * * * root /root/run_logs.sh

+ 4

kevincw01

6/10/24, 3:00 PM

I made these changes (except chmod because script was already executable) and it did not make a difference.

Romeo Ninov

6/10/24, 3:19 PM

Based on the OP question he put `cron` record in own file and format you suggest is appropriate for `cron.daily`!

Zareh Kasparian

6/10/24, 5:52 PM

@kevincw01 add the full path of zcat command to the script. The full path could be found with "which zcat" command

kevincw01

6/10/24, 9:51 PM

@zareh this was not the solution. See the solution below.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: crontab shell script execution not as expected

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