CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashapachecron
d.r.v.
d.r.v.

Reputation: 127

How to add timestamp to log output entries with cron?

I am trying to schedule htcacheclean to run every half hour with cron. The service itself runs fine, but I can't figure out how to get a timestamp to append to the log entries themselves (not the cron-log filename).

I could not quite find an answer anywhere as to how to add the timestamp to log entries themselves. I only kept seeing questions and answers for how to add date timestamps to cron log filenames which is not what I am looking to do.

This is what I have in crontab -e right now:

0,30  *   *   *   *       /usr/sbin/htcacheclean -v -n -t -p/var/cache/apache/mod_disk_cache -l1M >> /path/to/cron-output.log 2>&1

Currently this is how my output is printing:

Statistics:
size limit 1.0M
total size was 167.4K, total size now 167.4K
total entries was 5, total entries now 5

Now I just need a timestamp to appear next to the log entry just before "Statistics".

Edit:

Example of what I'm trying to do:

0000-00-00 00:00:00: Statistics:
size limit 1.0M
total size was 167.4K, total size now 167.4K
total entries was 5, total entries now 5

I want to add year, month, day, hour, minute, and seconds.

Thanks ahead of time!

Solution:

I wanted to add in the full solution here as suggested by @glenn jackman.

0,30  *  *  *  *    { printf "\%s: " "$(date "+\%F \%T")"; /usr/sbin/htcacheclean -v -n -t -p/var/cache/apache/mod_disk_cache -l1M ; } >> /path/to/cron-output.log 2>&1

After adding the printf command in the cron task, this is now what my output looks like:

2018-02-05 21:10:01: Statistics:
size limit 1.0M
total size was 1009.0K, total size now 1009.0K
total entries was 24, total entries now 24

Upvotes: 6

Views: 16337

Answers (2)

GK P
GK P

Reputation: 11

I am using this. 

#backup.sh
(date; /usr/bin/rsync -au  /sorcedir/ /dest/dir) &> /somedir/logfile.log

#crontab -e
*/30 */1 * * * /bin/bash /somedir/backup.sh

Upvotes: 0

glenn jackman
glenn jackman

Reputation: 246837

You could just use the date command in your cron entry, like this:

0,30 * * * * { printf "\%s: " "$(date "+\%F \%T")"; /usr/sbin/htcacheclean -v -n -t -p/var/cache/apache/mod_disk_cache -l1M ; } >> /path/to/cron-output.log 2>&1
# ...........^.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.........................................................................^^^

The printf is a bit convoluted, but it suppresses the newline like you want.

Edited to escape the percent signs. See comments below.

Upvotes: 8

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