Anomaly in CRON execution of shell script

[Takashi Yano]

On Sat, 28 Dec 2024 17:07:10 +0000
Chris Elvidge wrote:
> I have a directory of files that I need the contained executables run 
> from CRON. (Like run-parts.)
> 
> I have found that since 25/12/2024, when run from CRON, it doesn't 
> differentiate between executable and non-executable files. I.e. tries to 
> run the non-executables. It ran correctly on 24/12/2024, i.e apache2 and 
> updatedb ran, rest skipped.
> 
> Check file (simplified bit of original):
> $ cat bin/check-execute-bit
> #!/bin/sh
> cd $HOME/daily
> for S in *; do
>      [ -x "$S" ] && echo "$S : executable" || echo "$S : not executable"
> done
> 
> Directory contents:
> $ ls -l $HOME/daily
> total 48K
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 celvi celvi  625 Apr 24  2024 apache2
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi  15K Apr 24  2024 apt
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi  355 Apr 24  2024 bsdmainutils
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi 1.6K Apr 24  2024 dpkg
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi 2.2K Apr 24  2024 locate
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi 1.3K Apr 24  2024 man-db
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi 1.1K Apr 24  2024 ntp
> -rw-r--r-- 1 celvi celvi  257 Apr 26  2024 passwd
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 celvi celvi  932 Apr 24  2024 updatedb
> 
> Run from command line:
> $ check-execute-bit
> apache2 : executable
> apt : not executable
> bsdmainutils : not executable
> dpkg : not executable
> locate : not executable
> man-db : not executable
> ntp : not executable
> passwd : not executable
> updatedb : executable
> 
> Output from CRON running check-execute-bit:
> apache2 executable
> apt executable
> bsdmainutils executable
> dpkg executable
> locate executable
> man-db executable
> ntp executable
> passwd executable
> updatedb executable
> 
> 
> Anyone any ideas where I can look next for what is going wrong?

If you are running cron as privileged account (like SYSTEM),
perhaps, this is due to:
https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2024-December/256972.html

This problem will be fixed by:
https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin-patches/2024q4/013146.html

-- 
Takashi Yano <takashi.yano@nifty.ne.jp>