how do I autoshutdown with cron

[startreksteve]

Sorry, I meant the scheduled task (shutdown) doesnt run.
it just sits there still logged on.
which runlevel cron service should be enabled? I started them all.
Steve

[startreksteve]

Still no scheduling working...
What services do I need to check are working? Ive a feeling the cron service isnt running, how can I quickly check that it is?
Steve

[bigpaws]

In the Cli type

ps aux | grep cron

Bigpaws

[startreksteve]

In the Cli type

ps aux | grep cron

Bigpaws

Ok tried that and got the response:

steve:$ ps aux | grep cron
root      2645  0.0  0.2   1868   680 ?        S    16:37   0:00 /usr/sbin/crond
steve     3160  0.0  0.2   2008   640 pts/0    R+   18:57   0:00 grep cron

Does that look as though as it should work?
Steve

[saulgoode]

Ok I tried editing /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root and /var/spool/cron/crontabs/steve with nano, and created the following entry:
30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h
saved it ok, checked the cron and its in the list.
I enabled the cron service, and nothing runs.
Any ideas?

You need to instruct the shutdown command when it should shutdown:

30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h now


Actually, you might want to provide a bit of warning, rather than shutting down without notice.

[startreksteve]

Ok I tried editing /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root and /var/spool/cron/crontabs/steve with nano, and created the following entry:
30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h
saved it ok, checked the cron and its in the list.
I enabled the cron service, and nothing runs.
Any ideas?

You need to instruct the shutdown command when it should shutdown:

30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h now


Actually, you might want to provide a bit of warning, rather than shutting down without notice.

Thats not the point...
I tried BOTH, and neither work...
Steve

[bigpaws]

Check this file /var/spool/cron/crontabs/steve to make sure that
the shutdone command is not there. If it is move it to /var/spool/cron/
crontabs/root. Since only root can issue that command. You may
also want to check the logs for any entries. The other thing maybe to
check you syntax by issuing a command to execute that you
know you are allowed to. For example set time then /usr/bin/touch mytime.

That should create the file mytime in the home directory. If that works then
the path to shutdown is incorrect or the permissions are incorrect.

HTH

Bigpaws

[startreksteve]

Ok I tried editing /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root and /var/spool/cron/crontabs/steve with nano, and created the following entry:
30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h
saved it ok, checked the cron and its in the list.
I enabled the cron service, and nothing runs.
Any ideas?

You need to instruct the shutdown command when it should shutdown:

30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h now


Actually, you might want to provide a bit of warning, rather than shutting down without notice.

Thats not the point...
I tried BOTH, and neither work...
Steve

Ive done it!
One bloody character!!
it SHOULD read:
30 17,18,19 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h now
NOT:
30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h now

It was the 1-7 that confused it,
every day should be * not 1-7.
hurray! took me a few weeks to crack it eh?
Steve

[startreksteve]

Ok I tried editing /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root and /var/spool/cron/crontabs/steve with nano, and created the following entry:
30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h
saved it ok, checked the cron and its in the list.
I enabled the cron service, and nothing runs.
Any ideas?

You need to instruct the shutdown command when it should shutdown:

30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h now


Actually, you might want to provide a bit of warning, rather than shutting down without notice.

Thats not the point...
I tried BOTH, and neither work...
Steve

Ive done it!
One bloody character!!
it SHOULD read:
30 17,18,19 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h now
NOT:
30 18 * * 1-7 /sbin/shutdown -h now

It was the 1-7 that confused it,
every day should be * not 1-7.
hurray! took me a few weeks to crack it eh?
Steve

After all that effort... guess what? the day after I figured out the cron problem,
A machine was getting thrown in the trash at work... a perfectly functional AMD Athlon XP 2000, I said if its being dumped, Ill have it,
my three year old now has a 1.7mhz cpu running Ubuntu Hardy, Ive never needed to use the cron in Vector!
(anyone want a Celeron 400?)

I cant believe we are throwing away a 1.7mhz pc as being too slow!!!
that is of course because it was running XP.
flys on Linux, but hey, we all know that!
Steve