Question

how to get output on the terminal (application run from cron job)

Asked by: http29

Hi Guru:

I have application. I would like to output the debug infomation on my console or any terminal or stdout. I can run the application to do this. I also can run a script which starts the application without problem. But If I put the script on crontab to run it, I can't get output. I don't know where it goes.

for instance,

crontab like: * * * * * /root/check.sh

check.sh:

#!/bin/sh

cd /root
./test

test.cpp:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
      while(1) {
            printf("test.........\n");
      }
      return 0;
}

gcc -o test test.cpp

If I run "test" alonely, I can see output from screen like:

test.....
test....

If I run check.sh alonely, it does the same thing.

But if it run from cron, I can't see any output. printf says that it outputs the info to stdout, but where the output goes. I really need to get
those info from console but not redirect to file since we don't have much space. How can I get this. This is just a simple example. Thanks for help.

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Asked On
2003-06-26 at 14:43:05ID20661411
Tags

cron

,

output

,

terminal

,

job

Topic

Linux Programming

Participating Experts
5
Points
75
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: g3gg0Posted on 2003-06-26 at 16:04:13ID: 8809364

try to open ( "/dev/tty", ... )
and write there ;)

good luck :)

 

by: g3gg0Posted on 2003-06-26 at 16:05:42ID: 8809369

oh sorry or change the sh script to

cd /root
./test > /dev/tty

that will be easier :)

 

by: cplus66Posted on 2003-06-26 at 16:21:58ID: 8809436

In my application, /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1 and /dev/ttyS2 have been used. I will try /dev/tty and see if it works. Also I don't know if I can also try to /dev/console. Thanks.

 

by: g3gg0Posted on 2003-06-26 at 16:33:39ID: 8809494

/dev/console should also work :)
maybe even better, dont know ;)

 

by: sunnycoderPosted on 2003-06-26 at 22:36:02ID: 8810875

When executing commands, any output is mailed to the owner
 of  the  crontab (or to the user named in the MAILTO environment variable in the crontab, if such exists).

for all messages upto now check you mail box

if you are connecting to the machine remotely then you can use /dev/console for seeing your output as g3gg0 pointed out

but i do not think that you can use /dev/tty
/dev/tty refers to the your terminal on which you are working ... and it is not associated with cron

 

by: MikeOM_DBAPosted on 2003-06-27 at 07:48:41ID: 8813817

You could also send to a log file:

crontab like: * * * * * /root/check.sh >/tmp/check.log 2>&1

 

by: http29Posted on 2003-06-27 at 10:36:01ID: 8815017

It works with /dev/console. But I got lots of messages in the mailbox like sunnycoder said. I don't want that since the mailbox would be growing and eventually take away my space. I tried to stop sendmail, didn't work, then realized that it used local mail (I guess). Is any way to stop that (disable this from somewhere). Thanks for help.

 

by: problems_makerPosted on 2003-06-27 at 13:51:37ID: 8816418

If your program outputs nothing and exits normally there shouldn't be any messages.

Besides, if you program the other end yourself you could consider opening pipes or use of shared memory.

 

by: problems_makerPosted on 2003-06-27 at 13:53:43ID: 8816433

Oh, just seen what I said.... if it outputs nothing to stdout or stderr.

 

by: sunnycoderPosted on 2003-06-27 at 22:32:29ID: 8817799

piping to /dev/console should not generate any new messages to your mailbox
if still it does then then set MAILTO="" (two double quotes)

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