In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail

root@mtranch[221]->ls -l /home/root/fix_mail
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1324 2010-02-18 07:04 /home/root/fix_mail*

Crond sees this and says (from /var/log/cron)
Feb 18 07:06:01 mtranch crond[1362]: (CRON) bad command (/etc/crontab)

/home/root/fix_mail is a perl script,
root@mtranch[222]->head -1 /home/root/fix_mail
#!/usr/bin/perl

And executes correctly when run from the command line.

Any thoughts on what the source of the complaint might be?

Thanks.

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On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 10:01 -0800, Geoffrey Leach wrote:
> In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
> 30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail
>
> root@mtranch[221]->ls -l /home/root/fix_mail
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1324 2010-02-18 07:04 /home/root/fix_mail*
>
> Crond sees this and says (from /var/log/cron)
> Feb 18 07:06:01 mtranch crond[1362]: (CRON) bad command (/etc/crontab)
>
> /home/root/fix_mail is a perl script,
> root@mtranch[222]->head -1 /home/root/fix_mail
> #!/usr/bin/perl
>
> And executes correctly when run from the command line.
>
> Any thoughts on what the source of the complaint might be?
----
generally people make the mistake of assuming an environment where a
cron script would not have so for example, running...

ls assumes the environment of /bin so if you want to bury it in a script
run from cron, you would replace 'ls' with '/bin/ls' if you want it to
run... etc. Always provide absolute paths to scripts that may possibly
be run without an environment. Don't take for granted that whatever you
get for 'echo $PATH' will also be the same for a script.

Craig


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On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 12:05 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 10:01 -0800, Geoffrey Leach wrote:
> > In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
> > 30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail
> >
> > root@mtranch[221]->ls -l /home/root/fix_mail
> > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1324 2010-02-18 07:04 /home/root/fix_mail*
> >
> > Crond sees this and says (from /var/log/cron)
> > Feb 18 07:06:01 mtranch crond[1362]: (CRON) bad command (/etc/crontab)
> >
> > /home/root/fix_mail is a perl script,
> > root@mtranch[222]->head -1 /home/root/fix_mail
> > #!/usr/bin/perl
> >
> > And executes correctly when run from the command line.
> >
> > Any thoughts on what the source of the complaint might be?
> ----
> generally people make the mistake of assuming an environment where a
> cron script would not have so for example, running...
>
> ls assumes the environment of /bin so if you want to bury it in a script
> run from cron, you would replace 'ls' with '/bin/ls' if you want it to
> run... etc. Always provide absolute paths to scripts that may possibly
> be run without an environment. Don't take for granted that whatever you
> get for 'echo $PATH' will also be the same for a script.
>
> Craig
>
>
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>

Perhaps add an assignment to the BASH_ENV variable in the crontab file?
If your bash startup script is /root/.bash_profile, add
BASH_ENV=/root/.bash_profile
as the first line of the crontab file.



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On 02/18/2010 03:38:55 PM, Rick Sewill wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 12:05 -0700, Craig White wrote:
> > On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 10:01 -0800, Geoffrey Leach wrote:
> > > In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
> > > 30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail
> > >
> > > root@mtranch[221]->ls -l /home/root/fix_mail
> > > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1324 2010-02-18 07:04 /home/root/fix_mail*
> > >
> > > Crond sees this and says (from /var/log/cron)
> > > Feb 18 07:06:01 mtranch crond[1362]: (CRON) bad command
> (/etc/crontab)
> > >
> > > /home/root/fix_mail is a perl script,
> > > root@mtranch[222]->head -1 /home/root/fix_mail
> > > #!/usr/bin/perl
> > >
> > > And executes correctly when run from the command line.
> > >
> > > Any thoughts on what the source of the complaint might be?
> > ----
> > generally people make the mistake of assuming an environment where
> a
> > cron script would not have so for example, running...
> >
> > ls assumes the environment of /bin so if you want to bury it in a
> script
> > run from cron, you would replace 'ls' with '/bin/ls' if you want it
> to
> > run... etc. Always provide absolute paths to scripts that may
> possibly
> > be run without an environment. Don't take for granted that whatever
> you
> > get for 'echo $PATH' will also be the same for a script.

Thanks Craig and Rick for the suggestions. AFAICT the problem is with
the processing of the crontab file itself, not with the execution of
the command. FWIW, when the command is executed from /etc/cron.hourly
it works without a problem.
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On 02/18/2010 10:01 AM, Geoffrey Leach wrote:
> In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
> 30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail
>
> root@mtranch[221]->ls -l /home/root/fix_mail
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1324 2010-02-18 07:04 /home/root/fix_mail*
>
> Crond sees this and says (from /var/log/cron)
> Feb 18 07:06:01 mtranch crond[1362]: (CRON) bad command (/etc/crontab)
>
> /home/root/fix_mail is a perl script,
> root@mtranch[222]->head -1 /home/root/fix_mail
> #!/usr/bin/perl
>
> And executes correctly when run from the command line.
>
> Any thoughts on what the source of the complaint might be?
>
> Thanks.
>
>

You have your /root in /home?? That's unusual...
Maybe there's some permissions problem with /home?

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On 02/19/2010 02:51:56 PM, Konstantin Svist wrote:
> On 02/18/2010 10:01 AM, Geoffrey Leach wrote:
> > In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
> > 30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail
> >
> > root@mtranch[221]->ls -l /home/root/fix_mail
> > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1324 2010-02-18 07:04 /home/root/fix_mail*
> >
> > Crond sees this and says (from /var/log/cron)
> > Feb 18 07:06:01 mtranch crond[1362]: (CRON) bad command
> (/etc/crontab)
> >
> > /home/root/fix_mail is a perl script,
> > root@mtranch[222]->head -1 /home/root/fix_mail
> > #!/usr/bin/perl
> >
> > And executes correctly when run from the command line.
> >
> > Any thoughts on what the source of the complaint might be?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
>
> You have your /root in /home?? That's unusual...
> Maybe there's some permissions problem with /home?

Hmmm .. just can't get no respect :-)

It may be unusual to have /root in /home, but it simplifies the
intallation of new versions of Fedora.

I finally gave in and read the source. It appears that cron requires a
user name before the command. That is,

* * * * * <username> command to be executed

in /etc/crontab entries.



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Geoffrey Leach wrote:
> On 02/18/2010 03:38:55 PM, Rick Sewill wrote:
>> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 12:05 -0700, Craig White wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 10:01 -0800, Geoffrey Leach wrote:
>>>> In /etc/crontab, I have this line:
>>>> 30 * * * * /home/root/fix_mail
[SNIP]
> Thanks Craig and Rick for the suggestions. AFAICT the problem is with
> the processing of the crontab file itself, not with the execution of
> the command. FWIW, when the command is executed from /etc/cron.hourly
> it works without a problem.

Ah, yes. The format of /etc/crontab is different from that for individual
users' crontab files. You need to include the user ID:

30 * * * * root /home/root/fix_mail
^^^^
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