Re: cron and isql

There is no reason why you should not be able to get the two (cron and isql) to work. However, you must be very careful to set the environment variables in the script run by cron as scripts run by cron have no environment worth mentioning -- $HOME and an utterly minimal $PATH is all you can rely on. I normally put together a generic script which (1) sets the Informix and application environment for cron, and (2) which then inspects $0 and runs the corresponding script from another directory. Typically, there is a directory $PROJECTDIR/bin/Cron containing run_cron linked to the various commands run by cron. The crontab entries reference $PROJECTDIR/bin/Cron/some_cmd and the script ends up running $PROJECTDIR/bin/some_cmd. One example, derived from a real project, is shown below. As you can see, this was done some time ago, but as far as I know it is still in use. The XXmail script only sent mail if there was any useful information to send -- all blank messages are suppressed. It also determines the list of recipients from a configuration file so that the administrative messages are sent to the right people. Yours, Jonathan Leffler (johnl@informix.com) #include <disclaimer.h> >Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 16:11:48 +0000 >From: johnson@hqcso.attmail.com >Subject: cron and isql >X-Informix-List-Id: <list.5343> > > Hi! > We are successful running loads and ACE reports in cron, but are > not able to do isql updates in cron. We were told that this is not > supported. Is this true? Anyone have any suggestions? > We are running this on an AT&T 3B2 with Informix 2.10 SE (yes, old > stuff). We are moving to current version of SE on an NCR box soon. > Don't know if the problem occurs on new box yet. > And we think we have all the environment variable set (PATH, INFORMIXDIR, > DBPATH) correctly. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- : "@(#)cron.doit.sh 1.2 91/01/28" # # XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX System # # Generic script to run programs from CRON(1). # NB: Cron runs this script with a minimal environment. # The variables: PATH, HOME are set to defaults. # Reset environment for CRON . $HOME/.cronfile # Run named program, trapping output and sending it to XX administrator. arg0=`basename $0 .sh` $arg0 ${@:+"$@"} 2>&1 | XXmail -s "CRON: output from $arg0" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The .cronfile used looked like: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- : "@(#).cronfile.sh 1.3 91/03/27" # # XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX System # # Profile for CRON-run scripts # This is a subset of the information in .profile # It would probably be better if this lot was factored out of .profile # and into a file such as .environ, and then .environ was used in both # .profile and .cronfile. : ${INFORMIXDIR:=/usr/informix} export INFORMIXDIR PROJECTDIR=$HOME export PROJECTDIR MAILRC=/dev/null export MAILRC PATH=$HOME/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:$INFORMIXDIR/bin:.export PATH # Compiling options FGLTYPE=c4gl export FGLTYPE I4GL_TYPE=c4gl export I4GL_TYPE MAKE=rmk export MAKE # Database environment DBEDIT=vi export DBEDIT DBDATE=dmy4/export DBDATE DBMENU=XXX export DBMENU DBPATH=$HOME/frm:$DBPATHexport DBPATH umask 002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------