Crontab Jobs didn't execute shell script

Question

I'm developing django-python project and stuck in doing django-crontab for automate file backup, this is the code:

In my settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = (
.
.
.
'django-crontab',
)

CRONTAB_DJANGO_MANAGE_PATH = '/home/path/to/my/project/manage.py'

CRONJOBS = [
            ('25 15 * * *', 'cd /home/path/to/my/project && /usr/bin/sh myscript.sh'),
        ]

In myscript.sh

#!/bin/sh
set -e
cd /home/path/to/my/project/
exec cp file some_dir/copy_file

I test this code on my server to run at 15:25 o'clock and it's not executing the myscript.sh

The script is just doing copy file to another directory (for back up) and I've tested manually using ./myscript.sh in server, the script is working well...

I've been trying various methodology, but nothing seems works

I take the reference from django-crontab (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-crontab/0.5.1) and this site (https://superuser.com/questions/81262/how-to-execute-shell-script-via-crontab) + http://github.com/kraiz/django-crontab

EDIT

I've add my cronjob using this command as well

python manage.py crontab add

I've checked the job is there using this command

python manage.py crontab show

WORKING EXAMPLE

settings.py

CRONJOBS = [
            # Auto Backup Database everyday at 4 am
            ('0 4 * * *', 'django.core.management.call_command', ['dumpdata', 'myproject'], {'indent': 4, 'use_natural_keys': True}, '> /home/mydirectory/myproject_backup/myproject_backup.json'),
        ]

myproject_backup.json

[
{
    "pk": 1, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "permission", 
        "name": "permission", 
        "app_label": "auth"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 2, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "group", 
        "name": "group", 
        "app_label": "auth"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 3, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "user", 
        "name": "user", 
        "app_label": "auth"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 4, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "contenttype", 
        "name": "content type", 
        "app_label": "contenttypes"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 5, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "session", 
        "name": "session", 
        "app_label": "sessions"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 6, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "site", 
        "name": "site", 
        "app_label": "sites"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 7, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "logentry", 
        "name": "log entry", 
        "app_label": "admin"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 8, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "poll", 
        "name": "poll", 
        "app_label": "polls"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 9, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "choice", 
        "name": "choice", 
        "app_label": "polls"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 10, 
    "model": "contenttypes.contenttype", 
    "fields": {
        "model": "cronjoblog", 
        "name": "cron job log", 
        "app_label": "django_cron"
    }
},
{
    "pk": "1g6s3bly0gu6pn7spllerdw1n8sus08a", 
    "model": "sessions.session", 
    "fields": {
        "expire_date": "2013-09-04T05:48:32Z", 
        "session_data": "YTg4Y2I3OWM3Nzg4NmIyOGE2NmJiZDAxYmYwMGNiYWI3Zjg5OGFmMDqAAn1xAShVEl9hdXRoX3VzZXJfYmFja2VuZHECVSlkamFuZ28uY29udHJpYi5hdXRoLmJhY2tlbmRzLk1vZGVsQmFja2VuZHEDVQ1fYXV0aF91c2VyX2lkcQSKAQF1Lg=="
    }
},
{
    "pk": "j7ifcyfzfhentb5tx9492fphdf20g2qp", 
    "model": "sessions.session", 
    "fields": {
        "expire_date": "2013-09-11T04:54:37Z", 
        "session_data": "YTg4Y2I3OWM3Nzg4NmIyOGE2NmJiZDAxYmYwMGNiYWI3Zjg5OGFmMDqAAn1xAShVEl9hdXRoX3VzZXJfYmFja2VuZHECVSlkamFuZ28uY29udHJpYi5hdXRoLmJhY2tlbmRzLk1vZGVsQmFja2VuZHEDVQ1fYXV0aF91c2VyX2lkcQSKAQF1Lg=="
    }
},
{
    "pk": "m21on2le3kti3ezexzei1vpox57x8qgv", 
    "model": "sessions.session", 
    "fields": {
        "expire_date": "2013-09-05T06:29:00Z", 
        "session_data": "YTg4Y2I3OWM3Nzg4NmIyOGE2NmJiZDAxYmYwMGNiYWI3Zjg5OGFmMDqAAn1xAShVEl9hdXRoX3VzZXJfYmFja2VuZHECVSlkamFuZ28uY29udHJpYi5hdXRoLmJhY2tlbmRzLk1vZGVsQmFja2VuZHEDVQ1fYXV0aF91c2VyX2lkcQSKAQF1Lg=="
    }
},
{
    "pk": "x16t71c19o93kukwu5mvog1g76ynv3ip", 
    "model": "sessions.session", 
    "fields": {
        "expire_date": "2013-09-04T07:07:46Z", 
        "session_data": "YTg4Y2I3OWM3Nzg4NmIyOGE2NmJiZDAxYmYwMGNiYWI3Zjg5OGFmMDqAAn1xAShVEl9hdXRoX3VzZXJfYmFja2VuZHECVSlkamFuZ28uY29udHJpYi5hdXRoLmJhY2tlbmRzLk1vZGVsQmFja2VuZHEDVQ1fYXV0aF91c2VyX2lkcQSKAQF1Lg=="
    }
},
{
    "pk": 1, 
    "model": "sites.site", 
    "fields": {
        "domain": "example.com", 
        "name": "example.com"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 1, 
    "model": "polls.poll", 
    "fields": {
        "pub_date": "2013-08-21T05:56:00Z", 
        "question": "What are you doing?"
    }
},
{
    "pk": 2, 
    "model": "polls.poll", 
    "fields": {
        "pub_date": "2013-08-21T05:58:00Z", 
        "question": "What's on your mind?"
    }
},
.
.
]

If anyone can help, I would be very appreciated :S

Answer 1

Finally after pulling out my hair for several days, I found the working solution.

1. I login to server using putty (SSH)
2. Type commmand: crontab -e
3. You will see the list of crontab jobs

4. Add my job directly, I typed:

   0 3 * * * cp -pRu /home/path/to/my/project/file_dir /home/path/to/my/backup/dir

This will only copy new file/dir based on timestamps in file_dir to backup_dir everyday at 3 am

1. After finished type, press ESC, then CTRL+x, it will ask you want to save, just type Y then hit ENTER to save the file.
2. Check all the crontab job by type: crontab -l
3. That's it! Cheers man!

Hopefully, it helps someone who got similar problem :D

PS: thanks to Igor and zsquare as well.

Answer 2

See the format of django crontab:

#format 1
required: cron timing (in usual format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron#Format)
required: the python module path to the method
optional: a job specific suffix (f.e. to redirect out/err to a file, default: '')

#format 2
required: cron timing (in usual format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron#Format)
required: the python module path to the method
optional: list of positional arguments for the method (default: [])
optional: dict of keyword arguments for the method (default: {})
optional: a job specific suffix (f.e. to redirect out/err to a file, default: '')

In both cases you need to use python methods, not just commands from the shell. You are not allowed to write something like 'cd ...; ./command'; you should wrap this line into python module in your code.

More on it:

• https://github.com/kraiz/django-crontab

Answer 3

The cronjobs you schedule in your settings are not actually added to the crontab until you run python manage.py crontab add.

RTD