sound not playing at crontab -e

[Canedje]

I did add a sound to a python file to play.

Code: Select all

pygame.mixer.init()
pygame.mixer.music.load("ping.wav")
pygame.mixer.music.play()
while pygame.mixer.music.get_busy() == True:
    continue

This plays fine if I do run by hand:

Code: Select all

sudo python tuitlezer.py

If I do run this file by crontab -e the sound is not played.
The crontab command:

Code: Select all

*/2 * * * * /usr/bin/python /home/ewh/tuitlezer.py >/dev/null 2>&1

The ">/dev/null" is to prevend sending mail every 2 minutes


Why is thye sound not played by the crontab?

[kusti8]

If your script needs root, did you add it to the root crontab?

[Joe Schmoe]

Or, more to the point, if the command line version requires "sudo", then so also will the crontab version.

Note that this (keeping it in the user 'pi' crontab, but using sudo) is cleaner than the alternative of putting it in the root crontab.

The cleanest solution would be to make the script setuid root, then you wouldn't need sudo at all.

Note 1: I know nothing about Python. I don't know if it is (directly) possible to make a Python script setuid root.

Note 2: I said "directly" in the previous sentence, because there's usually a workaround - a way to get setuid even if the designers of the langauge don't want you to do it. (Shell scripts are a case-in-point)

[Canedje]

If your script needs root, did you add it to the root crontab?

Yes I did

[Canedje]

If your script needs root, did you add it to the root crontab?

Yes I did

You triggered me with the root.

The path off the root was not from the root in the python source.
I changed it. Now it workes.
Thanks for the tip

[DougieLawson]

You'd have to make python setuid because it's an interpreted language not one that's compiled.

I think the cleanest option is to use sudo in the shebang line

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/python

instead of

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/python

[Joe Schmoe]

#!/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/python

Yup, that should work.