in reply to Cron and Expect.pm

This script will set up a shell with an environment pretty similar to what cron runs under. You should put it in a file (mine's called "barebash"), run it, and try your cron command from there. 
#!/bin/sh

logname=$USER
home=$HOME

for i in `env | sed 's/=.*//'`; do
    if [ X"$i" != XPATH ]; then
        unset $i
    fi
done

export LOGNAME=$logname
export TERM=dumb
export HOSTTYPE=i386
export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin
export HOME=$home
export SHELL=/bin/sh
export OSTYPE=Linux
export SHLVL=1
export _=/usr/bin/env

exec bash -noprofile -norc $*

[download]

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Re^2: Cron and Expect.pm
by tilly (Archbishop) on Nov 12, 2004 at 19:11 UTC
    Going the other way, you can use RE (tilly) 3: Get default login environment in your cron jobs to make their environments match what you normally see when you are logged in.

    Incidentally your script above is easy to write in Perl: 

    #! /usr/bin/perl

%ENV = (
  LOGNAME   => $ENV{LOGNAME},
  TERM      => "dumb",
  HOSTTYPE  => "i386",
  PATH      => "/usr/bin:/bin",
  HOME      => $ENV{HOME},
  SHELL     => "/bin/sh",
  OSTYPE    => "Linux",
  SHLVL     => 1,
  _         => "/usr/bin/env",
);

exec("bash", "-noprofile", "-norc", @ARGV);

    [download]
    UPDATE: As pointed out by AM below, I was setting HOME twice. It makes more sense not to, so I've fixed that.
[reply]
[d/l]
      Why is HOME set twice? Is it (so) important?
[reply]
        theres no place like $HOME
[reply]

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