Cron Job Creating Odd File

[zorb56]

Hi all! So I've been trying to create a cron job to output CPU temperature and a timestamp to a text file for logging. I have the following script written, and the commands work as expected when run in the shell separately, but when run in the cron job, the output for DATE goes into a file named C3HSBO~G and the output for the core temps goes into the expected file. Any ideas as to why this would be occurring?

Code:

#!/bin/bash
TODAY=$(date)
echo $TODAY >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'
sysctl -a |egrep -E "cpu\.[0-9]+\.temp" >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'

 

[Ericloewe]

Looks like the filename is being mangled for some reason.

 

[Inxsible]

Hi all! So I've been trying to create a cron job to output CPU temperature and a timestamp to a text file for logging. I have the following script written, and the commands work as expected when run in the shell separately, but when run in the cron job, the output for DATE goes into a file named C3HSBO~G and the output for the core temps goes into the expected file. Any ideas as to why this would be occurring?

Code:

#!/bin/bash
TODAY=$(date)
echo $TODAY >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'
sysctl -a |egrep -E "cpu\.[0-9]+\.temp" >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'

Best option is to not use spaces in unix filenames/paths. But if you have to, try using double quotes instead of single quotes around the filename. Single quotes in bash usually don't interpolate anything like $(date) for example. Double quotes will.

 

[fracai]

I can't explain what you're seeing, the weird filename does look a bit like a long file name that has been rewritten by Windows, but as Inxsible suggested, try adding some double quotes.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
TODAY="$(date)"
echo "$TODAY" >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'
sysctl -a |egrep -E "cpu\.[0-9]+\.temp" >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'

or get rid of the TODAY variable entirely. You're not using it anywhere else anyway.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo "$(date)" >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'
sysctl -a |egrep -E "cpu\.[0-9]+\.temp" >> '/mnt/HomeNAS/shared/NAS Documentation/CPU.txt'

 

[Pezo]

Just a side note: egrep -E is redundant, egrep is typically aliased to grep -E.

 

[zorb56]

Thanks for the responses everyone! Turns out I had a rogue control character from editing in Windows.... Rewrote the script in the shell and all is well. Yeah I'm a Linux novice. Cheers!

Thanks for the tips too
@fracai - I used the variable just to see if that would give me different results, was a troubleshooting step
@Pezo - Noted! Thanks.

 

[fracai]

Thanks for the responses everyone! Turns out I had a rogue control character from editing in Windows.... Rewrote the script in the shell and all is well. Yeah I'm a Linux novice.

Happens to all of us. I can't even tell you how many times I've spent effort debugging only to realize my editor has saved with the wrong line endings.