Using Zip with crontab

[zaradell]

Good afternoon to you all

I really need help...

I´m having a problem using ZIP with crontab. For some reason the cronjob it not being made as specified in crontab.When i run the command in CLI it works fine. The problem is just when i try to run it in crontab:

30 12 20 * * root /usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/*


I´ve tried creating a script .sh and run it with crontab but no luck. I´ve tried to remove "root" from the begining of the line, but nothing. I´ve also tried to replace $(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip with name.zip but also nothing.

Is there anything specific I have to do, so that ZIP works with Crontab?

I´d really apreciate some help.

Thkx

 

[stanhubble]

os?
do other things work in cron?
are you getting any mail with the output?
you might need to redirect both stdout and stderr to see what the problem is.

 

[zaradell]

OS - Fedora Core 4

I have other things, such as copies (cp) and removes (rm) and they work ok.

As for mail, I´m not getting any. There´s no messages in /var/logs/cron and /var/logs/messages.

It´s like the command line is not even there.

Redirect both stdout and stderr? I don´t know what they are: I´m kinda of a newbie in linux.

Thkx for your reply stanhubble.

 

[stanhubble]

redirection: > = initialize and redirect
>> = append and redirect
1 = stdout
2 = stderr

what is the output of crontab -l
if nothing and you are using /etc/crontab


30 12 20 * * root /usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/* >> /tmp/ziplog 2>&1

you may also have to give the full path to date

 

[zaradell]

stanhubble

I am using /etc/crontab

Is that a problem?

I can create a crontab for root with crontab -e, but I thought /etc/crontab was the system crontab. Doesn´t it have priority over all the crontabs?

 

[elgrandeperro]

% are special to cron. read " man 5 crontab "

The entire command portion
of the line, up to a newline or % character, will be executed by /bin/sh or by the shell specified in
the SHELL variable of the cronfile. Percent-signs (%) in the command, unless escaped with backslash
(\), will be changed into newline characters, and all data after the first % will be sent to the com-
mand as standard input.


So try this:

30 12 20 * * root /usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +\%Y_\%m_\%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/*

Cron will strip the escape the \% to feed it to the shell as %. At least it worked for me.

BTW, this is pretty esoteric, and I would personally jam the whole thing in a bourne shell and avoid the issue.

 

[zaradell]

I don´t think there´s a problem with the date path. I´ve tried to replace the date string with a name and nothing:

30 12 20 * * root /usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/name.zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/*

I figured it could be a problem with the size of the directory I´m trying to zip, so I´ve tried to test zip with a small txt file...no luck!

For some reason crontab screws up the zip process. I´ve tried with tar and gunzip but nothing.

I think there´s some kind of small kink in crontab with zip,gunzip,etc...I just don´t know how to fix it.

As for jamming the whole thing the shell, this is a process that has to be done 3 times a week...and it takes a butload of time doing it. I really wanted to automatize it.

 

[stanhubble]

he means put the command in a shell and execute the shell from cron so the crontab line is clean.

 

[elgrandeperro]

My cron does not support the user in the sixth field, which I believe is a "new" style crontab (to avoid using su)

Make sure that your crontab supports that, it should log the execution in /var/log/cron or /var/cron depending on how /etc/syslog.conf is setup.

Also, I meant to just call the thing like:

30 12 20 * * /etc/dozipit

where /etc/dozipit is:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/*

In other words, take all the variables outside of cron.

 

[zaradell]

I´ve tried it. I´ve created a script.sh and I´ve tried to run it with crontab. It didn´t work.

I was able to run the script from CLI, but Crontab didn´t run it.

 

[elgrandeperro]

Exactly StanHubble.

BTW, you can avoid the "*" expansion by not using it:

Instead of say:

/usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/*

use

/usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/

Since the -r is recursize, it should give you the same results without having to expand the '*', which gets into trouble with a line length problem. Developers implementing with a recursive option usually write use libraries that are limited by directory size.

 

[stanhubble]

doh!! i missed the %'s .... yes this will cause a problem in crontab.

/etc/crontab is the (linux) "system" crontab and supports the userid's.
as far as i know there is no special priority assigned to it. you can (re)nice any individual process from it to give it more/less priority.

 

[elgrandeperro]

Yeah, I see it /etc/crontab, but it isn't mentioned (at least in RHEL 5) in "man 5 crontab"

I just tried it (in the normal crontab:

* * * * * root /bin/date >> /tmp/date.log

and it tries to execute or find a script called "root" because /tmp/date.log gets created but has no value.

 

[zaradell]

Ok...so, before u all get wayyy oftopic

I´ve tried /usr/bin/zip -r /Copy/$(date +%Y_%m_%d).zip /Backups_Tools_Automatic/Nagios/

without the *

...no results.

I´ve created an sh script.

...no results.

Any other sugestions?

 

[stanhubble]

hmmm

what are the permissions on /etc/crontab

 

[zaradell]

stanhubble

I cannot answer you that right now, seeing as I´m at home now, but I will see it tomorrow at work.

One thing I can tell you, is that I gave zip 777 permissions. So anybody could supposedly run it, right?

 

[stanhubble]

no /etc/crontab should only be 644 root:root


also i just tried the following:

*/5 * * * * root /usr/bin/zip -rq /tmp/$(date +\%Y_\%m_\%d) /var/run/*.pid

and it worked fine.

 

[elgrandeperro]

Is this through crontab/cron or command line?

Here is my test, works fine on command line

[root log]# /usr/bin/zip -r /tmp/zipfile.$(date +%Y%m%d).zip /tmp/zipit
adding: tmp/zipit/ (stored 0%)
adding: tmp/zipit/passwd.zip (stored 0%)
adding: tmp/zipit/a/ (stored 0%)
adding: tmp/zipit/a/group (deflated 48%)
adding: tmp/zipit/passwd (deflated 62%)
[root log]# /usr/bin/zip -r /tmp/zipfile.$(date +%Y%m%d).zip /tmp/zipit/*
updating: tmp/zipit/passwd.zip (stored 0%)
updating: tmp/zipit/a/ (stored 0%)
updating: tmp/zipit/a/group (deflated 48%)
updating: tmp/zipit/passwd (deflated 62%)
[root log]#

Both create the same correct output file.

Did you take the root field out of your crontab?

 

[zaradell]

stanhubble

I´ll try it tomorrow.Hopefully it will work.

Btw, what´s your OS? You´re crontab version is probly more recent than mine.

 

[zaradell]

Btw stanhubble

In your crontab line

*/5 * * * * root /usr/bin/zip -rq /tmp/$(date +\%Y_\%m_\%d) /var/run/*.pid

you didn´t specify the zip extension in the output file:
/tmp/$(date +\%Y_\%m_\%d)

In which format did the output file came out as?

Maybe the problem is in specifying the output file as a *.zip file.