My first guess would be to check that the relative paths are correct for the current working directory when run under cron (i.e. if bin/retention_by_product.pl lives somewhere other than under $HOME you might have problems).

i am an idiot... that was exactly it. just the paths. thanks

The Module FindBin gives you a variable called $FindBin::Bin which points to the path where the executed perlscript is; if you need a relative path like my $file = "./files/file.txt";, you can easily write instead:

use FindBin;
my $file = "$FindBin::Bin/files/file.txt";
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Best regards,
perl -e "s>>*F>e=>y)\*martinF)stronat)=>print,print v8.8.8.32.11.32"

It would be really helpful if you would use '<code>' tags when you show code. The way you have it now, the first line in your eval goes way off the screen. With '<code>' tags, this would be formatted in a way that breaks the long lines.

i apologize.

my $logdir = "piperead.$str.log";
open LOG, ">$logdir";

eval {
        open WP, '-|', "/apps/mysql/bin/mysql -hhost -ppasswd -uhost -
+D mysearch_retention -q -e 'select entry_week, week_num, cbid,live, s
+earching, entry_week_total, tot_search, ta, part from mysearch_part_t
+rack' ";
        open RP1,  '|-', "perl bin/retention_mywebsearch.pl " or die "
+can't fork retention_mywebsearch.pl -$! \n";
        open RP2,  '|-', "perl report.pl" or die "can't fork report2.p
+l -$! \n";
        open RP3,  '|-', "perl bin/retention_by_product_n2f.pl 1>/dev/
+null " or die "can't fork retention_mywebsearch.pl -$! \n";
        open RP4,  '|-', "perl bin/retention_by_product.pl 1>/dev/null
+ " or die "can't fork retention_mywebsearch.pl -$! \n";
        open RP5,  '|-', "perl bin/retention_mywebsearch_part.pl 1>/de
+v/null" or die "can't fork retention_mywebsearch.pl -$! \n";
        open RP6,  '|-', "perl bin/retention_mywebsearch_specific_trac
+k.pl 1>/dev/null" or die "can't fork retention_mywebsearch.pl -$! \n"
+;

};
if ( $@ ) {
        print LOG $@;
        print LOG "\n";
        close LOG;
        exit 1;
}

#skip the header;
my $header = <WP>;

while (<WP>){
        print RP1 $_;
        print RP2 $_;
        print RP3 $_;
        print RP4 $_;
        print RP5 $_;
        print RP6 $_;

}

close WP;
close RP1;
close RP2;
close RP3;
close RP4;
close RP5;
close RP6;
close LOG;
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