[PLUG] Dumb script question

[Neal]

> The big trick with cron is that it doesn't have a normal env so you
> tend to have to use full paths to everything, or manually set the
> environment prior to running the command.  It's also tricky debugging
> because you don't get to tell it to run now.  You usually have to set
> the frequency of how often it runs really low until you figure it out.

A useful trick whenever you're invoking executables in an unknown
environment is to simply run env and redirect it to a file.

When I run the cron command setup as
  *  *  *  *  *   env > mycrontab.env
using crontab I get the following in a file named mycrontab.env in my
home directory on a Ubuntu 8.04LTS box:

HOME=/home/neals
LOGNAME=neals
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin
SHELL=/bin/sh
PWD=/home/neals

Not a lot there, eh?

How you hook sudo into all of this is an exercise left to interested
parties.  ;)

FYI,

NealS