Re: cron sh ?

[Dave Sherohman <esper@sherohman.org>]

On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 01:04:35PM -0600, Lance Hoffmeyer wrote:
> I have a cron script and a line:
> 
> ... wget ... -O ~/Base$(data +%H%M).gif
                                ^ ^

> and I get the error
> 
> /bin/sh: -c: line1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `)'
> /bin/sh: -c: line2: syntax error: unexpected end of file
> 
> I am guessing that because I am running bash via cron that I am missing
> slashes or I need to enclose the command in quotes?

$ man 5 crontab
...
       The ``sixth'' field (the rest of the line)  specifies  the
       command  to  be  run.   The  entire command portion of the
       line, up to a newline or % character, will be executed  by
       /bin/sh or by the shell specified in the SHELL variable of
       the cronfile.  Percent-signs (%) in  the  command,  unless
       escaped  with  backslash (\), will be changed into newline
       characters, and all data after the first % will be sent to
       the command as standard input.
...

Change the %s to \%s and you should be set.

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