3

I have the following shell script 

$cat capture.sh TIME=$(date +"%H-%M-%d-%m-%y") IP="203.208.198.29" PREFIX=$TIME$IP tshark -f "udp" -i eth0 -w /root/captures/$PREFIX.cap& pid=$! sleep 2m kill $pid

it runs fine when i execute it from shell.

but when i add it to the cron tab nothing happens.

my crontab entry : 1 */2 * 2 3,4,5 sh /root/capture.sh 

tail /var/log/cron

shows that the command has executed .

but nothing happens. i have set executable permission for "all" for capture.sh and write permission for "all" for /root/captures directory.

Thanks in advance

Improve this question
1
  • What happens if you drop the cron job shell script into the cron.hourly directory? Will it run that way? (note: make it executable) Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 20:00

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
30

Your PATH variable probably isn't what you expect it to be inside cron.

Use full paths to each executable in your script or set the path manually in your crontab or the script.

Also, a better way of stopping your tshark would be using the built-in functionality:

 -a <capture autostop condition> duration:value Stop writing to a capture file after value seconds have elapsed.

Also #2: add a shebang line (#!)

Improve this answer
2
  • 13
    What is this...I don't even... Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 20:13
  • environment variable is supported in cron. man 5 crontab An active line in a crontab will be either an environment setting or a cron command. An environ- ment setting is of the form, name = value Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 1:18
3

Cron will limit the path used by cron jobs. Try /usr/sbin/tshark instead of just tshark. You can check where tshark is via which tshark

Improve this answer
1

Looking at your script I see you're attempting to capture traffic for two minutes and write a file. Did you really mean to have a cronjob that runs on every Wed/Thur/Friday in February, every other hour at 1 past the hour? I'm guessing you wanted it to run every 2 minutes...

From crontab(5) (which can be read with man 5 crontab)

 cron(8) examines cron entries once every minute. The time and date fields are: field allowed values ----- -------------- minute 0-59 hour 0-23 day of month 1-31 month 1-12 (or names, see below) day of week 0-7 (0 or 7 is Sun, or use names) A field may be an asterisk (*), which always stands for "first-last".
Improve this answer
2
  • no i'm trying to run it in every two hours. I'm doing some data mining to find a pattern. so i'm taking a sample every two hours. Commented Feb 2, 2012 at 20:00
  • Then you want to do 0 */2 * * * Commented Feb 3, 2012 at 1:40
0

It because tshark command was not found, you have two options to fix it.

  1. define path in crontab

    PATH=$PATH:/path-to-tshark

    */2 * 2 3,4,5 sh /root/capture.sh

  2. Use full path of tshark in your script.

    option #1 is the preferred way

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.