crontab doesn't run a bash script

Question

I read a lot of other topics and try many stuff, but I still doesn't work.

I have this simple run2.sh script:

#!/bin/bash
python3 my_script.py
wait;
sudo mv /home/ubuntu/test_code/csv_created_by_python_script.csv /var/www/html

It works perfectly when I go to the directory and wrote

sh run2.sh

But it won't run like I want (every two hours). I tried some kind of crontab, like

* * * * * /home/ubuntu/test_code/run2.sh
* * * * * PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin /home/ubuntu/test_code/run2.sh

But I thinks I don't understand all this path stuff...

EDIT: the cronfile

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
# Edit this file to introduce tasks to be run by cron.
#
# Each task to run has to be defined through a single line
# indicating with different fields when the task will be 
# and what command to run for the task
#
# To define the time you can provide concrete values for
# minute (m), hour (h), day of month (dom), month (mon),
# and day of week (dow) or use '*' in these fields (for 'any').
#
# Notice that tasks will be started based on the cron's system
# daemon's notion of time and timezones.
#
# Output of the crontab jobs (including errors) is sent through
# email to the user the crontab file belongs to (unless redirected).
#
# For example, you can run a backup of all your user accounts
# at 5 a.m every week with:
# 0 5 * * 1 tar -zcf /var/backups/home.tgz /home/
#
# For more information see the manual pages of crontab(5) and cron(8)
#
# m h  dom mon dow command

#1 * * * * PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin /home/ubuntu/test_code/run2.sh
* * * * * test_code/run2.sh &>cron.log
* * * * * pwd &>pwd.log     

Answer 1

The script is called run.sh but the cron entry tries to run run2.sh . Is the cron entry referring to the proper script?

You did not say which user's crontab you are working with. If it is for user ubuntu , and that is the user ID you used to log in, then crontab -e is the command to edit the crontab. If you use sudo , then you are affecting the root user crontab , which has different permissions.

You do not need two entries to make this happen. Just delete the last line. I will show you how to set an environment variable in a crontab below.

Specifying * * * * * means "run my program every minute of every day, 24/7". To make it run every 2 hours instead, use 0 */2 * * * . To learn more, see https://crontab.guru/every-2-hours

Cron runs commands from your home directory, so you can use a relative path to run a program under user ubuntu 's home directory.

Notice that I set the PATH environment variable, used by all cron entries, which might not be necessary, but should not hurt anything:

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

0 */2 * * * test_code/run2.sh

To debug, append &>cron.log like this:

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

0 */2 * * * test_code/run2.sh &>cron.log

Then from a terminal type:

$ tail -f cron.log

Let me know how you do with that.