Cron task does not work

Question

I am developing a backup script in my NAS running a docker container. Inside my container I have cron running with this /etc/crontab:

root@backups-nas:/code# cat /etc/crontab
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

0 * * * * root /code/backup.sh

I have also installed syslog-ng, so I can look for logs in /var/log/syslog, where my task appears:

root@backups-nas:/code# tail -f /var/log/syslog 
==> /var/log/syslog <==
Mar 24 19:00:01 backups-nas CRON[9250]: (root) CMD (/code/backup.sh)

The content of my script is this:

root@backups-nas:/code# cat backup.sh
#!/bin/bash
python3 /code/backup.py all >> /code/log/$(date +\%d-\%m-\%Y).log

But when it's o'clock no new log writter in /code/log/$(date +\%d-\%m-\%Y).log and the task is not completed. If I try to execute manually the line of /etc/crontab it works.

What do you think is happening? Thanks in advance

EDIT:

I edited backup.py, starting like this:

#!/usr/local/bin/python3

from sys import argv
import datetime

If I run the script directly works, but cron doesn't run it, although the line in /var/log/syslog.

Answer 1

In your system crontab file, you set the value of the PATH variable to /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin. This does not include the path to your python3 interpreter, which you say is located at /usr/local/bin/python3.

This means that you will need to do one of the following things:

• Add /usr/local/bin to PATH. You can do that in the crontab file by modifying the PATH= line (this would affect all jobs in the system's crontab file), or in the backup.sh script with PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin, before calling your Python backup script.

• Use the Python interpreter with an explicit path when you call your Python script, as in

  /usr/local/bin/python3 /code/backup.py all >> "/code/log/$(date +%d-%m-%Y).log"
  

  (note that the % characters do not have to be escaped here).

• Rely on the interpreter specified in the #!-line of the /code/backup.py script by not specifying an explicit interpreter at all:

  /code/backup.py all >> "/code/log/$(date +%d-%m-%Y).log"
  

  This relies on the first line of the backup.py script being #!/usr/local/bin/python3, and that the script is executable (chmod +x /code/backup.py).

Out of these variants, the "best" (personal opinion) is the last variation.

Answer 2

Just solved! I could debug it adding a log in tmp not inside my .sh, in my /etc/crontab.

The problem was simple: I was using a relative path instead of an absolute. But the echo inside my .sh didn't show anything.