running scripts from crontab

[matteedee]

Hi Im new to linux, using ubuntu 10.04.

I have been playing around with crontab and have no problems scheduling a job which runs a script file containing the following command:

mkdir Desktop/testdir.

However, when I try to do the following in the script file nothing happens..

top -b -n 1 > /tpm/topoutput.txt

Similarly the following doesnt do anything either:

ifconfig > Desktop/ifconfigoutput.txt

Is there something im missing?

Any help would be appriciated

[hazel]

Yes, you're missing the same thing I did! Cron is usually run by a special cron user who does not have the same command path as root (there is probably be a security reason for this). Consequently scripts that are to be run by cron need full path names for all commands.

[matteedee]

cheers, but what exactly do you mean by full paths?...

from the examples in my previous post the script file that runs a mkdir command works fine, its just the top and ifconfig commands that dont..

if you could elaborate that would be brilliant, im really new to this

[yancek]

Instead of using:

ifconfig > Desktop/ifconfigoutput.txt

use: /sbin/ifconfig Desktop/ifconfigoutput.txt

Similar for top: /usr/bin/top -b -n 1 > /tpm/topoutput.txt

You can find where ifconfig and top are on your system with whereis or locate commands if the above doesn't work.

[matteedee]

Thanks much appriciated

[sgosnell]

The absolute path for Desktop is /home/user/Desktop, where user is the username of the user who owns the desktop. Desktop is a valid path only from /home/user, nowhere else.