Cron not executing my tasks.

[glore2002]

Hello!

I have a script (tape) which records tv from the tv tuner card using Mencoder. I saved this script in /bin and can execute it from anywhere (so, it is added to my $PATH). Its format is: tape 12 test 00:02:00 (this means recording channel 12 during 2 minutes and calling the file test). I also made the script executable.

In Ubuntu 7.04 and in Slackware it works great if I added it to cron via crontab -e or kcron. But, when I do this in Mint or Ubuntu 8.04, nothing happens. It just doesn't record anything and I don't understand why. If, instead of adding the task to cron, I run the script from the command line, it works ok. So, I am a bit confused!

This is the way the script is written to cron when using kcron:

Code: Select all

0 12 13 7 7  tape 12 tvprogram 00:02:00

This means. Record at 12pm day 13 (today - Sunday). Execute the script tape which is in /bin folder. Do it during 2 minutes. Call the file tvprogram.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Glore2002.-

[glore2002]

Thanks for you reply Mr Blue but with quotation marks the same thing happened (just nothing being recorded). As you can see #!/bin/bash was already on top of it.

Here is my script (maybe it can be of some help too).

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
#
# script to encode tv using mencoder
#
# usage tape <channel#> <name> <duration>
#
CHAN="$1"
FNAME="$2"
DURATION="$3"

if [ $# -ne 3 ] 
then
echo "Usage tape <Channel> <Name> <duration>"
echo "duration = hh:mm:ss"
exit
fi

echo
echo "Taping " "$FNAME""_`date +%m%d`"
echo

mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l:device=/dev/video0:width=320:height=288:fps=25:norm=palnc:chanlist=us-cable:channel=$CHAN:saturation=-20:contrast=-20:audiorate=48000:immediatemode=0 -vf denoise3d -oac mp3lame -lameopts fast:preset=medium -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vqscale=4:aspect=4/3 -endpos $DURATION -ffourcc DX50 -o "$FNAME"_`date +%m%d`.avi -quiet

Thanks again,
Glore2002.-

[glore2002]

Thanks again Mr. Blue.
I've added full path to mencoder but nothing happened again This problem is driving me crazy. I don't know what to do.

Thanks again,
Glore2002.-

[glore2002]

Is cron working ok for everyone except me?

I've tried as root and same results: Nothing being recorded!
How do I start/restart cron in Mint?

Thanks,
Glore2002.-

[chattr]

[snip]

This is the way the script is written to cron when using kcron:

Code: Select all

0 12 13 7 7  tape 12 tvprogram 00:02:00

This means. Record at 12pm day 13 (today - Sunday). Execute the script tape which is in /bin folder. Do it during 2 minutes. Call the file tvprogram.

[snip]

Reply:

It looks as if the user field is missing, so maybe cron reads ' tape ' as the user.

Try putting this in /etc/crontab :

Code: Select all

# m h dom mon dow user command

0 12 13 7 7  root /bin/tape 12 tvprogram 00:02:00