# Syntax errors when job run from cron **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 21, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742 "2006-08-21T02:25:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/1 "2006-08-21T02:25:53Z")
Well this is weird! I’m used to odd problems when you run programs from cron but these are almost invariably to do with file permissions or stuff in the environment variables not matching the command line environment. I’m using ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i686-linux] on a RHE 3.0 system. The program runs fine from command line but gets nonsensical syntax errors when run from cron. Any idea where to look for the problem? Russell ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/2 "2006-08-21T02:33:50Z")
On 8/21/06, Russell F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Any idea where to look for the problem? > Check your paths, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/3 "2006-08-21T03:21:01Z")
Daniel B. wrote: > On 8/21/06, Russell F. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > Any idea where to look for the problem? > > Check your paths, maybe? All the ruby files are in the same directory which the job cds into before invoking the program. I’ve just added an ‘env’ to the job to compare all the environment variables. Should have though of that before… Russell ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/4 "2006-08-21T04:15:56Z")
On Mon, 21 Aug 2006, Russell F. wrote: > Any idea where to look for the problem? > > Russell probably you have two ruby installations and the wrong one is running your script. -a ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/5 "2006-08-21T05:47:01Z")
James B. wrote: > Russell F. wrote: > > > Any idea where to look for the problem? > > What is the user that actually runs the job in cron? > > Are you using absolute paths? > > #!/usr/local/bin/ruby > > not > > #!/usr/bin/env ruby we are getting close here! I’ve managed to reproduce the error on the cli by executing the file directly instead of running ruby i.e selms.rb … dies whereas ruby selms.rb … works fine. file starts with: #! /usr/bin/ruby [rful011@pateke selms]$ ls -l /usr/bin/ruby -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3548 Oct 5 2005 /usr/bin/ruby cron job looks like this: 40 \* \* \* \* cd /home/rful011/selms; ruby ./selms.rb -M -o selms -t periodic log.patterns note that the script is invoked via ruby in the cron job but gives the same symptoms as the file being executed directly. Here is the output from the cron job: SHELL=/bin/sh MAILTO=removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid SHEll=/bin/sh OLDPWD=/home/logowner USER=logowner PATH=/usr/bin:/bin PWD=/home/rful011/selms SHLVL=1 HOME=/home/logowner LOGNAME=logowner \_=/usr/bin/env ./selms.rb:55: syntax error when ‘periodic’ : Periodic.new( conf, $options[:syntax]) ^ ./selms.rb:56: syntax error when ‘realtime’ : ^ ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/6 "2006-08-21T05:14:03Z")
Russell F. wrote: > Any idea where to look for the problem? > What is the user that actually runs the job in cron? Are you using absolute paths? #!/usr/local/bin/ruby not #!/usr/bin/env ruby in the script (since env will differ for different users)? When run from the CLI are there RUBYOPT values (e.g., rubygems) in the environment that are not there for cron? – James B. [http://www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org) - Ruby Help & Documentation [Ruby Code & Style](http://www.artima.com/rubycs/) - The Journal By & For Rubyists [http://www.rubystuff.com](http://www.rubystuff.com) - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff [http://refreshingcities.org](http://refreshingcities.org) - Design, technology, usability ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 6:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/7 "2006-08-21T06:40:10Z")
unknown wrote: > On Mon, 21 Aug 2006, Russell F. wrote: > > > > > > > > file starts with: > > > > #! /usr/bin/ruby > > you have 1.8.4 installed in one place, probably /usr/local/bin/ and > 1.6.8 in Bugger! you’re dead right! [rful011@pateke selms]$ whereis ruby ruby: /usr/bin/ruby /usr/lib/ruby /usr/local/bin/ruby /usr/local/lib/ruby /usr/share/man/man1/ruby.1.gz [rful011@pateke selms]$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/ruby -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1214420 Jul 24 16:28 /usr/local/bin/ruby I was using darwin ports on a mac to install FreeRide and aborted it when I realised it was installing its copy of Ruby. I though I had got rid of it, but clearly not! Now I’ll figure out why 1.8.4 is generating syntax errors. Thank you very much! ---
**Author:** ![russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@russellf](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/russellf)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/syntax-errors-when-job-run-from-cron/65742/8 "2006-08-21T06:18:06Z")
On Mon, 21 Aug 2006, Russell F. wrote: > > > > file starts with: > > #! /usr/bin/ruby you have 1.8.4 installed in one place, probably /usr/local/bin/ and 1.6.8 in /usr/bin type which -a ruby and /usr/bin/ruby -v /usr/local/bin/ruby -v probably you should change the shebang line in your script. alternately you can set the PATH in your crontab like so PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH regards. -a