A relative cron questions

bittondb has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Ok, so I have had the unfortunate happenstance to learn that cron runs from ~/ and not the path of the script. So this is what I did...

if(defined $ENV{DBUILDER_DIR}){
    use lib "$ENV{DBUILDER_DIR}/lib";
} else {
    use lib "../lib";
}
[download]

and the crontab is

* */6 * * * DBUILDER_DIR=/home/indy/source/dbuilder /home/indy/source/
+dbuilder/scripts/spamburglar.pl
[download]

Is this the proper way to go about this? Just so you are aware, I also have this in a subsequent module:

     if(defined $ENV{DBUILDER_DIR}){
         $cfg->file("$ENV{DBUILDER_DIR}/etc/dbuilder.conf");
     } else {
         $cfg->file("../etc/dbuilder.conf");
     }
[download]

So, am I on the right track? Oh, and I know TIMTOWTDI!

Comment on A relative cron questions Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: A relative cron questions by atcroft (Abbot) on Dec 11, 2001 at 13:53 UTC
Someone else please let me know if this is right, but my understanding was that you w/could do something like the following in a crontab(5) for such a thing: `DBUILDER_DIR=/home/indy/source/dbuilder * /6 * * $DBUILDER_DIR/scripts/spamburglar.pl` [download] To my knowledge, you don't have to put an environment variable definition in a cron entry on the same line, but can put it above entries if it affects more than one, or is more readable that way. Then, in your code, I am thinking you w/could do something like: `unless (defined($ENV{'DBUILDER_DIR'})) { $ENV{'DBUILDER_DIR'} = '..'; } use lib "$ENV{'DBUILDER_DIR'}/lib";` [download] I haven't used the `use lib...` pragma you are using before, but I hope this either proves helpful in itself, or results in a more knowledgable monk posting to correct my misunderstanding, enlightening us both. My best in your quest for this knowledge.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: A relative cron questions by belg4mit (Prior) on Dec 11, 2001 at 20:42 UTC
You can have environment variables per job, but there ought to be a semi-colon in there `* /6 * * DBUILDER_DIR=/home/indy/source/dbuilder;$DBUILDER_DIR/spam +burglar.pl` [download] If it on a non-job line it becomes available to all jobs. `-- perl -p -e "s/(?:\w);([st])/'\$1/mg"`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: A relative cron questions by hakkr (Chaplain) on Dec 11, 2001 at 17:25 UTC
you can use `chdir '/dir';` to change the current working directory of your script. Also you could add the path to your libraies to @INC	[reply] [d/l]
Re: A relative cron questions by Fastolfe (Vicar) on Dec 12, 2001 at 02:10 UTC
Also see Read a static file from module directory, which is a similar situation. You may be able to use `$0` in conjunction with File::Basename to identify the location of your script and back track your way to the right lib directory. But I think the other posters' solutions are a little more elegant.	[reply] [d/l]