On 15 January 2015 03:01:56 CET, Harry Putnam <rea...@newsguy.com> wrote: >WHen I try to set anything other than strict crontab entries cron >refuses my edited crontab. Things like PATH or mailto, any kind of >var=value will cause it to be rejected. > >The most recent error is apparently coming from trying to use the >date command like this > >* * * * * somecmd > some-$(date +"%y%m%d_%H%M%%S").log > >And apparently crontab is stumped on that and complains of unmatched >`(' > > sh: syntax error at line 1: `(' unmatched > >Here is the actual line: >2 0,4,8,12,16,20 * * * ~/bin/rsnapshot -c >/etc/rsnap/rc/rsnap_gvHome.conf hourly |tee /tmp/rsnap_gvHOME-$(date >+\"%y%m%d_%H%M%S\").log > >Of course I checked thinking that I had left one off, but I hadn't nor >is there a missing `"' > >Its beginning to seem solaris cron is awfully strict. Or maybe >primitive is the word. > >Or maybe there is technique I'm lacking. That one is very likely > >`man crontab' says there are 3 variables supported. Seems a bit >constricted eh? I was supprised not to see `PATH' and `mailto' on the >list. > >There is always the option of putting whatever I want in a separate >wrapper script... but that seems like unecessary work. At least to me. > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >openindiana-discuss mailing list >openindiana-discuss@openindiana.org >http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
It is in fact better to put all logic into separate scripts, at least from systems management perspective - backup, reuse, versioning, comparison, extension etc. are greatly simplified for separate files. I am also not sure if cron is generally required to pass requests through a shell (rather than execute verbatim lines), and which one. You may have better luck with double-quotes and backticks to substitute command output rather than dollar-parenthesis though, e.g. "`date ...`" . HTH, Jim -- Typos courtesy of K-9 Mail on my Samsung Android _______________________________________________ openindiana-discuss mailing list openindiana-discuss@openindiana.org http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss