Can't Run Excel From A Cron Job Under Windows 7
Andrey Repin
anrdaemon@yandex.ru
Wed Nov 12 20:20:00 GMT 2014
Greetings, Kertz, Denis (D)** CTR **!
>>> An excel program is run like this:
>>
>>> run.excel 'c:\Shared\Bin\Create_Daily_Scorecard.xls'
>>
>>> When I run an Excel program interactively with this run.excel script it
>>> runs just fine but when I run it via a cron job Excel just hangs.
>>
>> Define "runs fine" please?
>> What exactly that excel script is doing?
> This run.excel script simply starts up Excel with the .xls file it is
> given. In this example Excel opens
> c:\Shared\Bin\Create_Daily_Scorecard.xls. This .xls has a Workbook_Open
> macro, which is automatically run whenever this .xls is opened, that reads
> some data files and creates another .xls as its output.
> What I mean by runs fine is that when I type this command at a bash prompt:
> run.excel 'c:\Shared\Bin\Create_Daily_Scorecard.xls'
> it runs to completion and creates a new .xls as its output. When I run
> this run.excel script from a cron job it hangs.
Hangs as in - do not create new file?
>>> When Excel hangs I can look at the processes running on the PC using the
>>> Windows Task Manager and I don't see the EXCEL.EXE process. But when I
>>> check the option to show processes from all users I see the hung EXCEL.EXE
>>> process, AND the user name displayed is my login. So I am running this under the
>>> Upar2 login and Task Manager doesn't display EXCEL.EXE as a Upar2 process
>>> but when I check 'Show processes from all users' it shows EXCEL.EXE running
>>> under user name Upar2 - a contradiction.
>>
>> Task manager display processes started in your current session.
>> Not processes started under your credentials. That's an important difference.
> Then this is just a difference between WinXP and Win7?
It was the case in Vista already.
> Under WinXP it shows EXCEL.EXE in my process list even when the "Show
> processes from all users" isn't checked.
Only if you logged in as admin.
>>> What I suspect is happening is Excel is attempting to do something that
>>> requires Upar2 permission but it isn't really running as Upar2 so Excel
>>> displays some error message and is waiting for the user to respond. But
>>> Excel is running invisibly so this can't be seen.
>>
>> More like you expect to run Excel interactively from service.
>> Not possible. Period.
> I'm not trying to run Excel interactively from a cron job. One of the
> limitations with using Excel from a cron job is Excel has to run error free.
> If Excel does run into some error it will typically generate an error
> message and wait for a user response. Since Excel is running invisibly from
> a cron job, there is no user to give a response and Excel just sits there
> waiting for a response that will never come.
Try starting cron in terminal session and see if anything comes up.
>>> I also suspect this Upar2 "confusion" isn't limited to running an Excel
>>> program. I can run a cron job with regular UNIX commands (cut, sort, etc)
>>> and see they are running with the ps command. But when I try to kill them
>>> (kill -9) I get permission denied. If I want to kill a process running via
>>> the cron I have to start cygwin with 'Run as administrator' and then I can
>>> kill processes running under the cron.
>>
>> Of course.
> Why "of course"? Shouldn't I be able to kill my own processes?
It's not "your own" process, it's "cron job" started with your credentials.
> I can certainly do that under WinXP.
Again, only if you logged in as admin.
This is not the case in Vista+ by default.
> But this isn't a major issue for me. I only
> pointed it out in case it was related to the issue why my Excel cron jobs hang.
--
WBR,
Andrey Repin (anrdaemon@yandex.ru) 12.11.2014, <23:08>
Sorry for my terrible english...
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