# RailsCron: error message

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 20, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731 "2006-02-20T06:12:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Van_Vo)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731/1 "2006-02-20T06:12:33Z")

</div>

Hi,

I’m trying to use RailsCron but keeping getting an error when I try to  
run  
it. I’m a beginner, so please use small words 🙂

-bash-2.05b$ rake cron\_start  
(in /home/jake/rails\_sites/testsite)  
Syntax error: “&” unexpected

The little bit I know about my environment:

- RailsCron installed as a plug in (not gem, cause I’m on a shared host)
- Debian Linux
- rake cron\_status returns nothing
- in cron\_start, the symbol &\> is in the script, but I have no idea how  
to  
find out what the symbol means (google doesn’t search symbols well). I  
believe this & is what it’s choking on, but I don’t know how to confirm.

I’ve tried running “ruby script/runner ‘RailsCron.start’&”, but my test  
method doesn’t seem to execute. The database does seem to get populated  
with cron jobs though.

How should I go about debugging this? It seems a bit complicated.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,  
Jake

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Van_Vo)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731/2 "2006-02-21T20:17:13Z")

</div>

This still happens - there is a line in the rake tasks file:

puts `#{sudo "nohup ruby script/runner -e #{mode} \"RailsCron.start \" &> /dev/null &"}`

Perhaps the & before \> was intended to be 2 (to redirect stderr to null)

puts `#{sudo "nohup ruby script/runner -e #{mode} \"RailsCron.start \" 2> /dev/null &"}`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Van_Vo)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731/3 "2006-02-21T21:00:51Z")

</div>

> puts `#{sudo "nohup ruby script/runner -e #{mode} \"RailsCron.start \" &> /dev/null &"}`

Try:

puts `#{sudo "nohup ruby script/runner -e #{mode} “RailsCron.start”

> /dev/null 2\>&1 &"}`

It’s supposed to send both stdout and stderr to dev/null.

-Kyle

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Van_Vo)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731/4 "2006-02-20T18:30:05Z")

</div>

On 2/19/06, Van Vo [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> - RailsCron installed as a plug in (not gem, cause I’m on a shared host)  
> How should I go about debugging this? It seems a bit complicated.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Jake
> 
> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

Are you running from the trunk? If not, can you move to trunk and see  
if the error is still there?

–  
Kyle M.  
Chief Technologist  
E Factor Media // FN Interactive  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
1-866-263-3261

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Van_Vo)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731/5 "2006-02-23T08:31:54Z")

</div>

Kyle M. \<kyle@…\> writes:

> > puts `#{sudo "nohup ruby script/runner -e #{mode} \"RailsCron.start \" &> /dev/null &"}`
> 
> Try:
> 
> puts `#{sudo "nohup ruby script/runner -e #{mode} “RailsCron.start”
> 
> > /dev/null 2\>&1 &"}`
> 
> It’s supposed to send both stdout and stderr to dev/null.

* * *

The error no longer appears for me.

Thanks,  
Jake

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@Van\_Vo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Van_Vo)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/railscron-error-message/70731/6 "2006-02-23T19:07:25Z")

</div>

On 2/22/06, Jake [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > 
> 
> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

Great, I’ll modify it in the trunk then…

–  
Kyle M.  
Chief Technologist  
E Factor Media // FN Interactive  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
1-866-263-3261