Cron doesn't have the same environment as you do when you run a script directly from the shell. For example, if your script is at /some/directory/script.pl and you have a text file at /some/directory/file.txt, then this will work from the shell when doing a "perl script.pl":
open F, "file.txt";
However, when the very same script is run from cron, the above code very often will not run, because cron doesn't have a default directory set. You can make it run with a
open F, "/some/directory/file.txt";
...which should work just fine. (This behavior is the same for "unlink" as well as "open.") In general you should always specify absolute pathnames for any script designed to run from cron.

Gary Blackburn
Trained Killer


In reply to Re: Script works different when it runs as cron by Trimbach
in thread Script works different when it runs as cron by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.