CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonubuntucron
user3415869
user3415869

Reputation: 91

how to run the python program using cron scheduling

I want a python webscraping program to be run everyday at a certain time. For that i am using this command in the cron in ubuntu

28 22 * * * root /home/ahmed/Desktop python hello.py

It just doesnt work. there must be something wrong with it. can anyone help me please?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3414

Answers (2)

vaultah
vaultah

Reputation: 46533

Try adding #!/usr/bin/python (called shebang line) to the top of your Python script and then 

28 22 * * * root /home/ahmed/Desktop/hello.py

You have to make your script executable like this (run this as a separate command): sudo chmod +x /home/ahmed/Desktop/hello.py

From the Shebang page on Wikipedia:

Under Unix-like operating systems, when a script with a shebang is run as a program, the program loader parses the rest of the script's initial line as an interpreter directive; the specified interpreter program is run instead, passing to it as an argument the path that was initially used when attempting to run the script.[8] For example, if a script is named with the path "path/to/script", and it starts with the following line: #!/bin/sh then the program loader is instructed to run the program "/bin/sh" instead (usually this is the Bourne shell or a compatible shell), passing "path/to/script" as the first argument.

If you don't want to change anything this will work as well:

28 22 * * * root python /home/ahmed/Desktop/hello.py

Upvotes: 2

tripleee
tripleee

Reputation: 189387

/home/ahmed/Desktop is (most probably!) not a valid command name. You want

28 22 * * * root python hello.py

or possibly

28 22 * * * root python /home/ahmed/Desktop/hello.py

depending somewhat on why you put that folder name there.

The syntax of a regular user's crontab is different. I can imagine no legitimate reason to run a scaping program as root. To run it from your own crontab you should use

28 22 * * * python /home/ahmed/Desktop/hello.py

(again possibly without the path name, or with the path somewhere else in the command line).

Upvotes: 2

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