On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 01:31:03 GMT, Charles Crume wrote:
| Hello all;
|
| If this is the wrong newsgroup to post this, please let me know and where it
| should be posted.
|
| I want to use cron to backup my log files on my web site and insert the date
| into the file name. I tested what I wanted to do with the following command
| from the shell prompt:
|
| cp -v logs/access.log xxx/access_`date '+%B_%d_%Y'`.log
|
| then did an "ls -la xxx" command. It shows:
|
| -rw-r--r-- 1 ccs sncweb 21794 Oct 23 00:58
| access_October_23_2004.log
|
| so the it worked as desired. Then, I put the line into my crontab. When it
| runs via cron, I get:
|
| /bin/sh: -c: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
| /bin/sh: -c: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file
|
| I did some searching on google and came across an article at
| http://forums.devshed.com/showthread...581#post825581 that mentions
| the % characters need to be escaped, so I modified the command to be:
|
| cp -v logs/access.log xxx/access_`date '+\%B_\%d_\%Y'`.log


Put the original command line into a file, make the file executable, and
call that file from cron. Much easier than messing abount with quoting levels.


--
Reverend Paul Colquhoun, ULC. http://andor.dropbear.id.au/~paulcol
Asking for technical help in newsgroups? Read this first:
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#intro

"Paul Colquhoun" wrote in message
news:slrncnka05.rnq.postmaster@andor.dropbear.id.a u...
> On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 01:31:03 GMT, Charles Crume
wrote:

[snip]

> Put the original command line into a file, make the file executable, and
> call that file from cron. Much easier than messing abount with quoting
levels.

Hi Paul;

Thanks for the reply.

I agree with your suggestion, and know how to do it that way. However, as I
am trying to learn Unix/Linux, I am interested in understanding why the \
chars are inserted into the file name and how to solve the issue directly.
Hope that you, or perhaps someone else, can enlighten me.

If not, I will, of course, do as you suggest.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Charles...


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"Charles Crume" writes:
>
> This now works in crontab, but the filename contains \ characters, as shown
> below:
>
> -rw-r--r-- 1 ccs sncweb 21794 Oct 23 00:58
> access_\October_\23_\2004.log
>
> Can someone enlighten me on what I am overlooking and how to get the \ chars
> out of the filename?

It's a cron bug in Paul Vixie's original source. I think most
distributions have patched it, but if your distribution is long in the
tooth or you compiled "cron" on your own, you'll need to get your
hands on a patch.

--
Kevin

Hello Kevin;

Thanks for the "heads up"!!! The outpur from "crontab -l' is:

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/crontab.12674 installed on Sat Oct 23 19:18:34 2004)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)

"1994" is a *little* long in the tooth, no?? ;-)

Guess I better contact my ISP (FWIW they do a good job if anyone is looking
for hosting services).

Thanks again.

Charles...



"Kevin Buhr" wrote in message
news:873c02cm1i.fsf@saurus.asaurus.invalid...
> "Charles Crume" writes:
> >
> > This now works in crontab, but the filename contains \ characters, as
shown
> > below:
> >
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 ccs sncweb 21794 Oct 23 00:58
> > access_\October_\23_\2004.log
> >
> > Can someone enlighten me on what I am overlooking and how to get the \
chars
> > out of the filename?
>
> It's a cron bug in Paul Vixie's original source. I think most
> distributions have patched it, but if your distribution is long in the
> tooth or you compiled "cron" on your own, you'll need to get your
> hands on a patch.
>
> --
> Kevin


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