Cronjob not running

Troubleshooting
1

Please excuse, I have very little Linux knowledge.
I’ve got a dietpi running on pi400.
I’m trying to automate downloading haahtag on instagram.

I’ve got the script right, if I run it in cmd it works.
I’ve created a file inside /etc/cron.hourly/
The file is called instagram.

It works by just typing the path of the file.
Ie /etc/cron.hourly/instagram

The problem is that it won’t run automatically.
I’ve done the chmod x to make it be able to run.
Not sure what else I’m missing.

The contents of the instagram file is:
#!/bin/bash
CD /home/dietpi/insta
Instaloader xx

2

you shouldn’t need the command to “CD” to the directory

In the bash script provide the exact path to the script needed to run such as

#!/bin/bash
/home/dietpi/insta/Instaloader.sh

or whatever you have the script saved as

3

you could try to execute the file from ctrontab directly. Just open it with ctrontab -e

4

Thanks for that.
I edited the file inside /etc/crontab.hourly to reflect.

Inside that file is now just

#!/bin/bash
/home/dietpi/insta/Instaloader.sh

However, nothing happens.
I checked htop and the command never launches.
If I execute it from commandline - ie. /etc/crontab.hourly/instaloader.sh it works fine.

1 Like
5

just some general remarks

  1. Files in /etc/cron.*/ are not allowed to have file endings, hence rename abc.sh to abc
  2. Take care it has the shebang #!/bin/bash (or whichever shell works), as those files are not explicitly executed with a specific shell.
  3. Take care it is executable: chmod +x /etc/cron.hourly/abc
  4. Check if it would be executed: run-parts --test /etc/cron.hourly/

I hope /etc/crontab.hourly was a typo on your post, as it would need to be /etc/cron.hourly

1 Like
6

Have the same problem

7

Great, had the same problem.
My crontab programme for transmitting temperature, air pressure and humidity to ThingSpeak did not work.
It was only after your tip that I got it to work. Now it works as planned.
Thank you!

8

good it is working now. However pls try to use English within the forum as we are an international community. Feel free to use translation tools like DeepL. For now, I translate all your post. Thx for understanding.

1 Like