Using cron for auto tasks

**sharon63** · 02-26-2004, 01:37 PM

There are some things that I want to run automatically, like my email program starting at least an hour before I get up and then downloading my email ready for me. So I have made the following cron file which is in /etc/cron.daily
========================
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/croninit installed on Mon Feb 23 12:02:14 2004)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
MAILTO=""
LANG="en_UK"
0 0 7 * * /usr/local/bin/sylpheed
========================
and called 'boztu.cron'

In the morning I read in my Cron-parts email ... /etc/cron.daily/boztu.cron:
/etc/cron.daily/boztu.cron: line 6: 0: command not found

and it hasn't run. The permissions on boztu.cron are rwxr-xr-x with the owner and group being both boztu.

Why doesn't it run please, and what do I need to do to get it to run please?

BTW, I'm using White Box Enterprise Linux 3.0 [essentially just RHEL3 but rebadged

], and I'm still very much a noobie to Linux

Sharon.

**redhead** · 02-26-2004, 03:23 PM

move the file to your $HOME or where you want it to be, then issue the command: crontab -u [user] <the_file>
That should be enough to ensure sylpheed will be initiated as that user every day at 7am.
The only problem you might face, will be not to have a valid $DISPLAY when cron decides to run the command.
Things saved in /etc/cron.daily will be run as root every day when cron is running, could be at 4am or whenever cron is active.
Those files should only contain the scripts/programs that needs to be run, not info to cron on when to use it.
http://www.linuxjunior.org/cgi-bin/p...play&id=69

**sharon63** · 02-26-2004, 04:25 PM

[quote author=redhead link=board=1;threadid=8760;start=0#msg79137 date=1077809037]
move the file to your $HOME or where you want it to be, then issue the command: crontab -u [user] <the_file>
That should be enough to ensure sylpheed will be initiated as that user every day at 7am.
The only problem you might face, will be not to have a valid $DISPLAY when cron decides to run the command.

Thanks for this, you were exactly right, it runs but doesn't display

Any ideas please how I can get this program to display?

Its all part of my strategy to get a good up-to-date, working box, and then give it to my 72yo mother to use for her daily activities. The next thing to get working is a backup system.

Sharon.

[/quote]

**redhead** · 02-27-2004, 10:15 AM

[quote author=sharon63 link=board=1;threadid=8760;start=0#msg79142 date=1077812742]
Thanks for this, you were exactly right, it runs but doesn't display

Any ideas please how I can get this program to display?
[/quote]
The part of the problem you face here, is that any user on a machine will only be assigned a valid $DISPLAY when they are loged in, since cron is running in a system space as the user, and not initiated from a shell by the user, it will not enherit the users $DISPLAY required by any GUI program.

One way you can achive the desired result, is to use fetchmail and have cron invoke that at any given time.
I would suggest to have the cron entry like this:
@reboot /usr/bin/fetchmail -s -d 600 --syslog -f /my/fetchmail.rc-file
This will ensure fetchmail to be invoked when the machine is booted, rettrieve mails every 10 minuts, and be quiet about any errors.

Your fetchmail.rc file could look something like this:

Code:

   poll mail.provider.net with proto pop3:
            user &quot;mymother&quot; there has password &quot;u can&#039;t krak this&quot;
                           is mother here and wants mda &quot;/usr/bin/procmail&quot;

Now fetchmail will use procmail for local delivery, and you can setup procmail to filter any unwanted spam messages from your mothers mail, by using spamassassin in combination with procmail.

In order to give your mother the view as if it's her beloved M$ outlook she's still using, you will configure sylpheed to check the local mail-queue instead of polling the mail from some pop3 server, now she will get her mail eventho she hasn't started sylpheed.

Remember to configure the WM like winXP and your mother wont suspect a thing, apart from the login screen which greets her every time she boots the machine.
[quote author=sharon63 link=board=1;threadid=8760;start=0#msg79142 date=1077812742]
The next thing to get working is a backup system.
[/quote]
You could use iBackup very easy to use with cron aswell.

**coltrane** · 02-27-2004, 12:15 PM

brilliant

**redhead** · 02-27-2004, 02:02 PM

[quote author=coltrane link=board=1;threadid=8760;start=0#msg79176 date=1077884106]
brilliant
[/quote]
Thanks coltrane, I know I havn't been around here much lately (as in a year or more) but it seems as if the guidence hasn't failed me yet.