Re: Can't capture PID with script in cron

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Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 20:04:38 GMT

On 10 Nov 2003 10:42:18 -0800, spacemancw wrote:

Glad to see you have quit top posting and started responding after the
point(s) in question. :)

Some people just hate that.

> It's a very simple script ....
> More the reason to get frustrated when something small just doesn't
> work .....

Been there done that. I have had more problems with little programs
than with much larger programs.

> Works now tho
>
> #!/bin/sh

Noticed you hardcoded paths to programs. That was part of the env
hints given. I had visions of you setting every thing you found in
your environment and that kludge hid the fact that you also set the
$PATH var. What you can do is add something like

. /etc/profile # set PATH and LD_LIBARY and what not env vars

That will make the script a little more portable to other systems

> DATE=`date`

I had wondered if date was working without /bin/date,
you never said. Guess MAC OS works different, than I thought, in cron.

The other things you might keep in mind are the following general
rules for cron/at/batch jobs:

o cron/at batch jobs are not hooked to a tty. So, dinking with term and
  doing terminal commands can cause problems.

o For debugging you can use the set -x or set -vx or #!/bin/sh -x
  so you not have to go through the pain of adding/deleting the
  debugging code like the echo suggestion I gave.

o You can create a cron_test scrit which can pipe/tee or redirect your
  script output under test.

  #!/bin/sh
  /where/ever/icall | tee /tmp/cron_test.log
  or
  /where/ever/icall > /tmp/cron_test.log 2>&1

o User's .cshrc/.kshrc/.bash_* are not normally executed in cron.

o if applications support it, always test return codes or add
  additional code. That helps tell you what the problem is when the
  script fails a few months in the future because of a full disk,
  protection on output files are incorrect, missing/wrong runtime
  library, . . . .

  Example:

        touch /Users/myhome/icallog.txt
        if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
           echo "Error touching /Users/myhome/icallog.txt"
           exit 1
        fi

        echo "iCal restart with PID of $PID" >> /Users/myhome/icallog.txt
        /Users/myhome/AS/ical.app

Now if /Users is not mounted the touch error message will get you
closer to the problem than wondering why /Users/myhome/AS/ical.app
has not done it's job.

I use indented flower boxes for comments to make it easier to find the code.

    #********************************************************************
    # ical.app is an applescript and applescripts can be launched at
    # the command line with just the path to the app.
    # The applescript performs a function in the Mac OS scripting language
    # and then quits iCal
    #********************************************************************

/Users/myhome/AS/ical.app
exit

Happy scripting.

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