1

I have this in my crontab:

PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/env bash > ~/cron.log 2>&1

The ouput in cron.log is the following:

/usr/bin/env bash: No such file or directory

/usr/bin/env as well as /bin/bash both exist. And I can also run this command from the same user to whom this crontab belongs without any errors. I also tried adding

SHELL=/bin/bash

to the top of the crontab. No effect. Don't have a clue what's going on. Also this:

*/1 * * * * which bash > ~/cron.log 2>&1

shows nothing at all in the log file. This is everything I have in my crontab for this user, nothing else.

fixer1234
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orion3
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3 Answers3

5

Since your script that cron runs starts with #!/usr/bin/env bash (right?), all you need to do in your crontab is:

*/1 * * * * /path/to/script > ~/cron.log 2>&1

And make sure that the script actually outputs something; if your script is completely quiet, your log file will be empty.

Community
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BenjiWiebe
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  • I had to add `PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"` as well. I had to login to the server as root (not sudo) to figure out what the root path was by default. Apparently cron is too dumb to use the user's default profile – chovy Mar 05 '16 at 10:39
1

Turns out, I shouldn't have had this line:

PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH

Removing it from crontab fixed the issue.

orion3
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  • Combination of yours an @benjiwiebe's solved my problem. Cron is really too dumb to know anything. Its default path is basically 2 directories. – chovy Mar 05 '16 at 10:45
-3

Am not sure what exactly you're trying to do, but for me:

# which bash
/bin/bash

So try 

/usr/bin/env /bin/bash /path/to/some/script > ~/cron.log 2>&1
Stephan
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  • One of the scripts that I run with cron (`rvm-exec`) has `#!/usr/bin/env bash` at the top of it and I can't really change it, because it breaks everything. I realized that the problem in this particular case is with cron, not rvm, since cron doesn't even know where bash is. – orion3 Feb 15 '13 at 00:52
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    It completely defeats the purpose to use `/usr/bin/env /bin/bash`; `/usr/bin/env` searches the PATH for `bash`; you use `/usr/bin/env` to find `bash` when you are not sure where `bash` is at. – BenjiWiebe Feb 15 '13 at 02:04
  • just call bash at top of crontab – chovy Mar 05 '16 at 10:45