Chronicling Perl script and recognition of modules location with Crontab

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

Dear Masters,
I would like to run my Perl script every 15 minutes. And my crontab looks like this:

MAILTO=neversaint@somehost.com
*/15 * * * * /usr/bin/perl /home/neversaint/MyPerl/Somedir/myscript.pl
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Furthermore in myscript.pl also uses a module (List::Compare). However the script above doesn't seem to get executed. And it fails to recognize the location of the module, by emailing me this message:

Can't locate List/Compare.pm in @INC (@INC contains: ..etc
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Is there something wrong with my Crontab setting?

Update: The script works in the normal situation under my linux shell, but not in this cron (thanks to sgifford's clarification).

---
neversaint and everlastingly indebted.......

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Re: Chronicling Perl script and recognition of modules location with Crontab by sgifford (Prior) on Sep 22, 2006 at 05:13 UTC
Assuming that the script works from your shell command-line, the problem is likely to be the different environment the cron job runs in. For example, maybe you have `PERL5LIB` in your environment, and cron probably won't. The easiest way to troubleshoot this specific problem would be to see where `List/Compare.pm` is located, then make sure that directory is at the top of your script with a `use lib` statement. Another idea is to run a shell with no environment, with something like `env - bash`. Getting your script to work in that environment should ensure it works with cron as well. -- sgifford's Web page	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Chronicling Perl script and recognition of modules location with Crontab by ysth (Canon) on Sep 22, 2006 at 05:13 UTC
If it's emailing you, it's because it ran the script and got the Can't locate... on stderr. Is List/Compare.pm in one of the directories listed? If not, fix it or adjust @INC with PERL5LIB= or perl -I ... or `use lib`, etc.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Chronicling Perl script and recognition of modules location with Crontab by cephas (Pilgrim) on Sep 22, 2006 at 11:35 UTC
As someone pointed out, there is likey an environment difference. To elaborate on that, cron clears out the entire environment, with the exception of: `HOME, LOGNAME, TZ, PATH, SHELL`. It should be executing the bourne shell (not bash), not matter what your login normally uses.	[reply] [d/l]