cron and copying files across drives: how?

[Igor Pechtchanski]

On Thu, 16 Sep 2004, Andrea M wrote:

> I am having a problem running a simple bash script with cron. The script
> executes and behaves as expected when run from the command line, but
> when run by cron, it fails to execute some commands.

Cron runs as a different Windows user ("SYSTEM"), so things that work from
your normal logon may not work from there.

> I narrowed the problem down and found out that cron fails to copy files
> between drives; for example, the following does not work
>
> * * * * * cp /cygdrive/c/Andrea/try.png /cygdrive/z/try.png
>
> I should mention that the z drive is a network drive.

Well, here's your problem.

> And yes, a simple script containing that command does execute correctly
> from the prompt.
>
> Thanks in advance

Simple: the z drive isn't accesible to SYSTEM.  Either make it accessible
(by doing a "net use" before/when starting the service), or don't use
/cygdrive/z in your scripts.  FWIW, if the share is publicly accessible
you can use the following syntax instead:

* * * * * cp /cygdrive/c/Andrea/try.png //remote.machine/share/try.png

You may still need to do a "net use", though.  Try testing it out in a
system-owned shell (Google for the recipe).
HTH,
	Igor
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