Rsync cron job not syncing

mickwish · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2025 7:36 am Post subject: Rsync cron job not syncing

Hi everyone, been a while since I was here last. Smile

I am running a DNS-323 NAS box with fun_plug installed, trying to get it to automate backups. The script runs fine if I run it manually so paths are all fine, but the cron job writes to the named text file but doesn't run any syncs. Anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Called script scripy file

mickwish · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2025 9:59 am Post subject:

Ok, the main problem seems to be that it won't write to the file "crontab.txt" Yet this is what the instructions says here. Have found some other errors in the script, but even fixing them fails to get the file created with the name crontab.txt. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mick

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pbharris · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2025 Posts: 320 Location: chicago

hello,
assuming the paths are good:

mickwish · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2025 11:12 pm Post subject:

Actually that path was one of the errors: /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d dies not exist in this version.

Have realised I may be trying to run as root, so have changed the commands to run directly and added the rsync from the fun_plug bin instead of /bin, thus:

mickwish · Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2025 7:50 am Post subject:

Ok, it is not writing to crontab. says the file /mnt/HD_a2/crontab.txt does not exist (actually says No such file or directory2/crontab.txt) - is there a problem with having the _a in the path?? Do I need quotes or something?

Thanks
Mick

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d_riordan · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2025 10:51 pm Post subject:

Path looks fine to me. Underscores are fine in Linux directory and file names. Question stands, does the file / path exist? If you:

mickwish · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2025 9:25 am Post subject:

OK, the file exists. It.s currently empty, so cat reports " ". But running editcron.sh still gives error: No such file or directory2/crontb Crying or Very sad

Obviously the script is not parsing the filename correctly, but why???? Confused

Any ideas, you *nix gurus out there?

Thanks
Mick

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Kubuntu

d_riordan · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2025 2:51 pm Post subject:

You might try adding

mushroom · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2025 4:36 pm Post subject:

I remember having an issue with a cronjob a while back...
my script would run perfectly when called from the command line but not if called by cron Sad

The script was kept in my home/bin directory in "/home", apparently "/home" was not mounted as executable.

My solution was to create a directory "/ubin" in "/", then a directory "/ubin/each_user" change ownership and permissions of the directory, then move my bin to "/ubin/each_user/bin" and replace it with a symlink.

Once my script was in the same partition as "/bin/bash" everything worked Smile

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mickwish · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2025 11:41 am Post subject:

Well, I really dunno what I did, but the cron job now runs. Very Happy

Still seems to have issues writing to the file, but if I create the file to be copied to crontab with the text already in place it works. I think it is a directory permission issue, but since it works now I'll take it. Smile

Just means I have to manually update if I want to change anything, but that's OK.

Thanks
Mick

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mickwish · Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2025 4:58 am Post subject:

Well, that was embarrassing! Just worked out why the script wouldn't run - forgot to parse the script file for line breaks! Embarassed

oRemoved those st00oid winders carriage returns and it runs fine.

Gotta remember to use the Unix converter in Notepad Plus in future. Embarassed

Thanks for your help in this guys, got it all working now.

Cheers
Mick the embarrassed Shocked

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d_riordan · Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2025 10:16 pm Post subject:

Lord.DragonFly.of.Dawn · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2025 12:28 am Post subject:

I ran into that problem a few times, but only in specialized uses that required accurate counting of lines processed.

I don't run into it often and it has never caused an error like the one described but it does exist and some scripts may run into it depending on how they process input data.

-P

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