Crontab Error?

[pmcmicha]

I am getting the following error when attempting to use crontab in this manner on one of the servers I use:

su ${LOGIN} -c "crontab -l > ${DIR}/${FILE}"

UX:crontab: ERROR: Cannot determine current directory.

This is not a problem on any of our other servers which are configured the same. I did find that if I use the following syntax, this does not happen:

su - ${LOGIN} -c "crontab -l > ${DIR}/${FILE}"


I have verified ownership/permissions of /usr/bin/crontab as well as file size and its correpsonding sum value which all match our other servers. I checked SCO's site for anything that might pertain to this issue, but I did not find anything. Does anyone else have any ideas about this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[edfair]

5.0.4 thru 5.0.6 have a patch available. Don't know if it will resolve this problem. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[pmcmicha]

Sorry, forgot to give the version that I am running:

SCO Unixware 7.1.1

 

[drtrinidad]

I'm pretty sure this is because you are issuing the command from a directory in which the user does not have 'execute' permission (in this case affecting the ability to read the current directory). The problem goes away when you use 'su -' because the command gets run from the user's home directory.

Assuming this is in a script, and there is a reason not to use 'su -' you could simply put 'cd /tmp' before issuing the crontab command.