Re: Help : can not get cron work

[Igor Peshansky <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

I guess including this in the body wasn't prominent enough...
AGAIN: <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#PCYMTNQREAIYR>.  Please read the
meaning of this acronym before continuing this thread.  Thanks.

On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, lin q wrote:

> > From: Igor Peshansky <pechtcha@XX.XXX.XXX>
> > Reply-To: cygwin@XXXXXX.XXX
> > To: lin q <linq936@XXXXXXX.XXX>
> > CC: cygwin@XXXXXX.XXX

The above is what <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#PCYMTNQREAIYR> refers to.

> > Subject: Re: Help : can not get cron work
> > Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 17:32:17 -0500 (EST)
> >
> > On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, lin q wrote:
> >
> > > > Subject: Re: Help : can not get cron work
> > > > Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 14:23:06 -0500 (EST)
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, lin q wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > > From: Brian Dessent <brian@XXXXXXX.XXX>
> > > > > > Reply-To: cygwin@XXXXXX.XXX
> > > > > > To: cygwin@XXXXXX.XXX
> > > >
> > > > <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#PCYMTNQREAIYR>.  Thanks.
> > > >
> > > > > > Subject: Re: Help : can not get cron work
> > > > > > Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 18:00:46 -0800
> > > > > >
> > > > > > lin q wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > >   1) "cygrunsrv -I cron -p /usr/sbin/cron -a ?D"
> > > > > >
> > > > > > You should run /usr/bin/cron-config, and not try to do this by
> > > > > > hand because there is much more to do than just installing the
> > > > > > service.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > >             16 10 * * * linq  rsync -azv emperor:/dev/tools/* /cygdrive/c/bin/tools
> > > > > >
> > > > > > That is not the proper format of a user's crontab line.
> > > > > > There is no such "username" field as the fifth field in a
> > > > > > user's crontab, it should just be "16 10 * * * rsync ...".
> > > > > > It was trying to execute a command named "linq" that does not
> > > > > > exist, and there should be errors to this effect in the
> > > > > > Windows Event Log.  See "man 5 crontab".
> > > >
> > > > Yep, I missed that...
> > > >
> > > > > > Also realize that if you do not have system-wise mounts and
> > > > > > Cygwin in the PATH the above will not work.  This would have
> > > > > > been evident if you attached the cygcheck output as requested
> > > > > > in <http://cygwin.com/problems.html>.
> > > > >
> > > > > OK, I re-installed cron using /usr/bin/cron-config and I
> > > > > corrected crontab by removing that "linq".
> > > > >
> > > > > It still does not work.
> > > > >
> > > > > I tried a Hello Wold test with the following crontab line,
> > > > >
> > > > > * * * * * /bin/date > /tmp/date.out 2>&1
> > > > >
> > > > > It works fine.
> > > >
> > > > Good.
> > > >
> > > > > Now I come to suspect something of Cygwin setup. But I can not
> > > > > see anything wrong in log file of cygcheck. I attach the file.
> > > > >
> > > > > One thing to note, when I run cygcheck, it exits with an error,
> > > > > > cygcheck -svr > /tmp/cygcheck.log
> > > > > cygcheck: dump_sysinfo: GetVolumeInformation() failed: 1231
> > > > >
> > > > > Is this a problem?
> > > >
> > > > Nope.  Error 1231 means "The network location cannot be reached.".
> > > > Must be a network drive.
> > > >
> > > > > Another thing, I checked the Windows event loger and I see some
> > > > > "Information" on crontab, here is the dump out:
> > > > >
> > > > > The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( /usr/sbin/cron )
> > > > > cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary
> > > > > registry information or message DLL files to display messages
> > > > > from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE=
> > > > > flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for
> > > > > details. The following information is part of the event:
> > > >
> > > > This is just junk that the Event Viewer adds when it doesn't know
> > > > how to parse the event data.  You can safely ignore it.
> > > >
> > > > > /usr/sbin/cron : PID 6064 : (linq) CMD (rsync -azv
> > > > > emperor:/dev/swtools/* /cygdrive/c/bin/swtools).
> > > >
> > > > And this is just cron informing you exactly which job it was
> > > > trying to run.
> > > >
> > > > > Do you understand what it is about?
> > > >
> > > > Looking at the cron job, there could be a few possibilities for
> > > > failure: cron doesn't find rsync; the wildcard gets expanded too
> > > > early; rsync has output that cron doesn't know where to send
> > > > because you don't have an smtp daemon running...  At least your
> > > > mounts look ok.  Try eliminating the possibilities above by fixing
> > > > your cron job...
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > > I did some correction, now here is my crontab:
> > >
> > > > crontab -l
> > > # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
> > > # (/tmp/crontab.4232 installed on Thu Jan  5 15:02:10 2006)
> > > # (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 1.8 2004/12/21 16:14:41 corinna Exp $)
> > > * * * * * /usr/bin/rsync -azv emperor:/devl/swtools c:/bin/swtools
> > >
> > > Again I tested that the command, "/usr/bin/rsync -azv
> > > emperor:/devl/swtools c:/bin/swtools" works fine if I type it on shell.
> >
> > Does it work from a SYSTEM-owned shell (search the archives for
> > "sysbash")?
> >
> > > I still can not make it work.
> > >
> > > The last suggestion you give is about smtp daemon, I do not quite
> > > understand.  Could you elabrate on that?
> >
> > Whenever a cron job writes anything to stdout/stderr, cron tries to
> > email the output to the user whose crontab it's running.  If you don't
> > have an smtp daemon running, the cron job will fail (IIRC).  Try
> > redirecting the output to a file in a known location.  You can also
> > try starting an smtp daemon (there are a couple in Cygwin, AFAIR), but
> > redirection is so much easier.
>
> Thanks, I tried that and this time I know what is going wrong.
>
> The problem is rsync. Here is the logging of the error,
>
> Could not create directory '/cygdrive/h/.ssh'.
> Host key verification failed.
> rsync: read error: Connection reset by peer (104)
> rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at
> /home/lapo/packaging/tmp/rsync-2.6.6/io.c(584)
>
> This is really confusing. I can run the command manually, no problem.
> But in cron it does not work. From its error message, I see 2 problem,
> not sure if they are dependent,

Something is different when your rsync is running under cron -- perhaps
the value of $HOME?

> 1) can not create directory /cygdrive/h/.ssh.
> That directory already exists and it holds the ssh files like
> authorized_keys2, id_dsa, id_dsa.pub and known_hosts, why when running
> in cron, rsync tries to create it?

Isn't 'H' a network drive?  That is probably your problem -- read
<http://cygwin.com/faq/faq.using.html#faq.using.shares>.

> 2) Host key verification failed.
> But verification has no problem when I run in shell.

Again, the service has no access to the file to do the host key
verification against.  See the above link.

> I wonder if I should set up some variable in crontab file?
>
> I add "echo $LOGNAME > /tmp/file" and I can see that it is correct.

I think your problem is that you're trying to access a password-protected
share from a service-impersonated user.  The above FAQ link has some
recipes for working around this.
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_	    pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu | igor@watson.ibm.com
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		Igor Peshansky, Ph.D. (name changed!)
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		old name: Igor Pechtchanski
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

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"But no -- you are no fool; you call yourself a fool, there's proof enough in
that!" -- Rostand, "Cyrano de Bergerac"

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