bash script wont auto-run from cron.hourly

[sceamindynomit]

ok heres the scripts i cp -r into /etc/cron.hourly

#/bin/bash

## Settings - Put your directory to your wallpaper folder here.. (example: /home/pi/Pictures/Wallpapers)
dir='/home/pi/Downloads/walls'

## select a random image
file=`/bin/ls -1 "$dir" | sort --random-sort | head -1`
path=`readlink --canonicalize "$dir/$file"`

## pushing result to pcmanfm (Which manages the wallpaper)
pcmanfm --set-wallpaper="$path"

## Step Three - exit
exit 0

i can execute it manualy but it wont run thru cron

i did sudo chmod +x /home/pi/Desktop/desktop/wall

then sudo cp -r /home/pi/Desktop/desktop/wall /etc/cron.hourly
any ideas why it wont work?

[sprinkmeier]

missing "!" in first line, it should be

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#!/usr/bin

Probably better to install the job in the users CRON list using "crontab -e" rather than make it a system job.

Not sure if the pacmanfm command needs $DISPLAY to be set.
try

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env -i ./the_name_of_the_script

if it still works then there should be no problem.

[PeterO]

missing "!" in first line, it should be

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#!/usr/bin

For a script it should be the path to an appropriate shell, for example

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#!/usr/bin/bash

PeterO

[rpdom]

missing "!" in first line, it should be

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#!/usr/bin

For a script it should be the path to an appropriate shell, for example

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#!/usr/bin/bash

Exactly!

In this case it should be

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#!/bin/bash

[PeterO]

My excuse is I'm sitting in front of a Windows machine right now !
PeterO

[rpdom]

That sounds like some form of torture to me

[PeterO]

That sounds like some form of torture to me

Corporate IT system, so yes, torture !

[sprinkmeier]

My excuse is I'm sitting in front of a Windows machine right now ! :( :roll:
PeterO

I'm not sure I've got one :-) (other than it being late at night)

That sounds like some form of torture to me :( :lol:

I feel that way about Windows too!

[sceamindynomit]

ok crontab dosnt seem to be working i put

1-24 * * * /home/pi/Desktop/wall

am i useing it right to have it change hourly?

[sprinkmeier]

ok crontab dosnt seem to be working i put

1-24 * * * /home/pi/Desktop/wall

am i useing it right to have it change hourly?

It'll change every minute for the first 24 minutes of every hour :-)

try

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@hourly  /home/pi/Desktop/wall

[sceamindynomit]

it dosnt seem to be even trying to run the cronjob any ideqas? do i have to start crontab as a process? if so how would i do that?(im a semi noob with linux)

[rpdom]

As sprinkmeier said, you've set it to run at minutes 1 to 24 past each hour. If you want it to run every hour you could do

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0 0-23 * * /home/pi/Desktop/wall

(There is no "24" on a 24 hour clock. It runs from 00:00 to 23:59)
or

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0 * * * /home/pi/Desktop/wall

The first method is slightly clearer, but you can use either.

To check that it is being started, wait until just after the hour and then

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rpdom@raspi5 ~ $ tail /var/log/auth.log
Jun 27 08:20:01 raspi5 CRON[31559]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user rpdom by (uid=0)
Jun 27 08:20:03 raspi5 CRON[31559]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user rpdom
Jun 27 08:25:01 raspi5 CRON[31589]: pam_unix(cron:session): session opened for user rpdom by (uid=0)
Jun 27 08:25:02 raspi5 CRON[31589]: pam_unix(cron:session): session closed for user rpdom
Jun 27 08:27:51 raspi5 sshd[31620]: Accepted publickey for rpdom from 192.168.1.42 port 41103 ssh2
Jun 27 08:27:51 raspi5 sshd[31620]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user rpdom by (uid=0)

There you can see CRON entries to show that something was run at that time.

To debug the cron script itself you can add logging to the entry

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0 0-23 * * /home/pi/Desktop/wall >/tmp/wall.out 2>/tmp/wall.err

When the cron runs it will create two files under /tmp. wall.out will contain any ordinary output from the run, and wall.err will contain any error messages. Because I suggested ">" instead of ">>" the files will get overwritten every time the cron runs, so only the latest ones will be there.

[sceamindynomit]

ok i figured out a way to avoid the annoyance of crontab heres the code

#/bin/bash
while [ true ]
do

## Settings - Put your dir to your wallpaper folder here.. (like: /home/pi/Pictures/Wallpapers)
dir='/home/pi/Downloads/walls'

## Step one - Random File selection
file=`/bin/ls -1 "$dir" | sort --random-sort | head -1`
path=`readlink --canonicalize "$dir/$file"`

## Step two - pushing result to pcmanfm (Which manages the wallpaper ^^)
pcmanfm --set-wallpaper="$path"

## Step Three - exit
sleep 3600
done

i would have had to modify the script and there would have been layering violations it would have been a mess this is a simple yet elegant solution

[PeterO]

this is a simple yet elegant solution

No, it's a kludge. You now have no way of knowing when the next event will be !

Cron is exactly the thing you should be using. Did you try doing it properly with "crontab -e" ?

PeterO

[sceamindynomit]

yes i tryed 0 0-24 * * ect/ect/ect dosnt work but the sleep 3200 makes it sleep for 3200 seconds (or 1 hour so it will execute evey hour after the script is executed, which is all i was realy after but if t can be modified to work with crontabs i will try it) i dont think crontab works for shell scripts or at all even lol

[sprinkmeier]

yes i tryed 0 0-24 * * ect/ect/ect dosnt work but the sleep 3200 makes it sleep for 3200 seconds (or 1 hour so it will execute evey hour after the script is executed, which is all i was realy after but if t can be modified to work with crontabs i will try it) i dont think crontab works for shell scripts or at all even lol

3200 seconds, is that an imperial hour?
I've been cron-ing scripts for decades, so if cron really doesn't support scripts I've been doing it wrong :-)

[DougieLawson]

3200 seconds, is that an imperial hour?

Is that in the same way that 16oz is an American pint.

60*60 == 3600 in my mathematical system.