variables in crontab

Question

On our linux server we have a lot of entries.

Many entries look like this:

15 13 * * 3 /very/long/path/to/binary/run.sh ...

These entries would be easier to maintain if I could write:

15 13 * * 3 $FPATH/run.sh

Where could I write this mapping:

FPATH=/very/long/path/to/binary

This answer already covers your question
Where can I set environment variables that crontab will use? — X Tian, Mar 13 '14 at 10:18
also partial answer http://stackoverflow.com/a/10657111/1515570 — Kiwy, Mar 13 '14 at 10:19

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 11 '19 at 12:33

9

This perfectly works, ie

$ crontab -l
TESTDIR=/home/user/test

* * * * * "$TESTDIR"/script.sh

Have a look at

man 5 crontab

more info is found there.

edited Sep 11 '19 at 12:33

Kusalananda

333,661

answered Mar 13 '14 at 10:28

Joris

106

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 10:18

2

Simply embed this in the crontab itself, e.g. put your FPATH line (without spaces) as the first line of the crontab.

answered Mar 13 '14 at 10:18

Gaius

358

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 13 '14 at 10:16

May you have a look at the Arch Wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Environment_variables). In the section "Defining variables globally" you find this answer:

Most Linux distributions tell you to change or add environment variable definitions in /etc/profile or other locations. Be sure to maintain and manage the environment variables and pay attention to the numerous files that can contain environment variables. In principle, any shell script can be used for initializing environmental variables, but following traditional UNIX conventions, these statements should be only be present in some particular files. The following files should be used for defining global environment variables on your system: /etc/profile, /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/environment.

PS: I am at work and can't test it. Hope it works.

The environment set up for running the commands in a crontab is described in crontab(5). This may well differ between distributions of Linux. — Kusalananda, Sep 11 '19 at 12:38

variables in crontab

3 Answers3