Tyler, How about replacing those tilde characters with the explicit home information? e.g., /home/username/valiant, etc. On the redirection, many commands produce output to both stdout and to stderr. When you use > /dev/null, you are only redirecting stdout, not stderr. To redirect both, use their file handles like this: command arg1 arg2 1>/dev/null 2>&1 The 1 means stdout, but is assumed if omitted. The 2 means stderr, and ampersand 1 means "the address of 1". So you are redirecting 1 to null, and 2 to the same place. HTH Chuck On Sat, Nov 08, 2008 at 12:41:38PM -0700, Tyler Littlefield wrote: > Hello, > I was kinda rushed with the last message. > First, I'm running the script from command line: > ./backup.sh > the line in the script works great, but when I run it from the script, it > says it's cowardly refusing to create empty archives. > Also, when it runs, it shows removing leading slash, and that's what's > sent to me in my cron mail. > Is there a way I can direct errors to /dev/null from within the script? > This is what's happening to my crontab script with update, too. > It runs apt-get update > and then sends me mail with all the output--I've tried > apt-get update>/dev/null > Thanks, and sorry for all the questions--I'm not extremely familiar with > bash scripts. > I'd be greatful if someone could supply a decent tutorial that they've > found useful; I've found a few things, but they didn't go in to much > depth. > > > Thanks, > Tyler Littlefield > email: tyler at tysdomain.com > web: tysdomain-com > Visit for quality software and web design. > skype: st8amnd2005 > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tyler Littlefield" > <tyler at tysdomain.com> > To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 6:36 PM > Subject: Re: backup apparently not working > > >> I am not running it from crontab. i'ts running from the command line. >> >> Thanks, >> Tyler Littlefield >> email: tyler at tysdomain.com >> web: tysdomain-com >> Visit for quality software and web design. >> skype: st8amnd2005 >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kerry Hoath" <kerry at gotss.net> >> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." >> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> >> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 6:11 PM >> Subject: Re: backup apparently not working >> >> >>> Exactly what I said. >>> Just because you execute a script from crontab does not mean it has >>> all environment variables set inside the script. >>> >>> Your script is relying on the fact that the HOME environment variable >>> is set, which i'm sure it is when you run the script from the >>> command-line, however it might not be the case when the script is run >>> from cron. >>> >>> What user is running the crontab and what value do you expect HOME to be? >>> Also is the script running under /bin/bash and is the backquote >>> expantion actually working? >>> Modify your crontab so it echos your command into a temporary file so >>> the command that is executed is what you think it is. >>> Regards, Kerry. >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tyler Littlefield" >>> <tyler at tysdomain.com> >>> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." >>> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> >>> Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 8:33 AM >>> Subject: Re: backup apparently not working >>> >>> >>>> what do you mean is it set in the crontab? I just execute that >>>> script from crontab. it's the script that's not working. >>>> >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Tyler Littlefield >>>> email: tyler at tysdomain.com >>>> web: tysdomain-com >>>> Visit for quality software and web design. >>>> skype: st8amnd2005 >>>> >>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kerry Hoath" <kerry at gotss.net> >>>> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." >>>> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> >>>> Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 4:32 PM >>>> Subject: Re: backup apparently not working >>>> >>>> >>>>> Is HOME set correctly in the crontab? >>>>> >>>>> Regards, Kerry. >>>>> >>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tyler Littlefield" >>>>> <tyler at tysdomain.com> >>>>> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." >>>>> <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> >>>>> Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 7:52 AM >>>>> Subject: backup apparently not working >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> Hello, >>>>>> First. I've partially figured out the problem. >>>>>> It's throwing a fit about removing leading slash. >>>>>> second, I've got the following line in a script: >>>>>> tar -czvf ~/backups/valiant/`date '+%m-%d-%Y_%H'`.tar.gz >>>>>> ~/valiant/moo/db.db >>>>>> when I ran that from the command line, it worked. when I tried >>>>>> to run it from a script, it "cowardly refused to create an >>>>>> empty archive," and then decided to try to run every file in my >>>>>> directory, it looks like. >>>>>> Ideas? >>>>>> >>>>>> Thanks, >>>>>> Tyler Littlefield >>>>>> email: tyler at tysdomain.com >>>>>> web: tysdomain-com >>>>>> Visit for quality software and web design. >>>>>> skype: st8amnd2005 >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> Speakup mailing list >>>>>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >>>>>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Speakup mailing list >>>>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >>>>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Speakup mailing list >>>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >>>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Speakup mailing list >>> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Speakup mailing list >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (76% of Full) My web site: http://hallenbeck.ftml.net -- my telephone: 1-518-334-9022. -------- The best defense against logic is ignorance.
