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From: rlw@well.UUCP (Bob Weissman)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards
Subject: Solution to cron+script+syslog problem
Message-ID: <671@well.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Feb-86 13:20:35 EST
Article-I.D.: well.671
Posted: Tue Feb 18 13:20:35 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Feb-86 00:15:53 EST
Organization: Whole Earth Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 18
Keywords: cron shell syslog environment
Xref: linus net.unix:6585 net.unix-wizards:14023
Summary: Watch out for unset vars!

Thanks to all who responded to my message about being unable to do
a syslog from a C shell script under su under cron.  Since I got so
many reponses (some of which were close, but not entirely right),
I thought I'd post the solution (also thereby acknowledging that I
now have the answer & y'all can stop helping now).

The problem is the lack of environment under cron.  Little goodies
you expect to be set, such as $USER and $PATH don't exist.  In fact
the entire environment, as printed out by printenv under cron is:
HOME=/

So the solution was to check for unset variables and set the ones you
need.

Thanks again to all respondents.
-- Bob Weissman
   G.WEISSMAN@SU-SCORE.ARPA
   ..!well.rlw