Running newusers util in cron to batch create users does not run

Question

I'm attempting to batch create some users from a file using the newusers util on ubuntu 18.

When running in cron as the root user, nothing happens. When I run the command manually, it works as expected and creates the users in the file. Heres my crontab, running every minute to test:

*/1 * * * * newusers /tmp/ftp_users.txt

Running it manually like this is fine newusers /tmp/ftp_users.txt.

I have no idea what I'm missing to get this command to run in cron.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '21 at 10:41

1

You have to use the full path in cronjobs. So find out the full path to news users (/bin/newusers/) or whatever it is, and place that in your cronjob. You can find the full path by typing

which newusers

answered Mar 28 '21 at 10:41

Shōgun8

194
1
10

this was the issue added PATH var to crontab – kurupt89 Mar 28 '21 at 13:22

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '21 at 11:57

0

Check the mail cron sends to root containing the console output of your command. This will tell you what went wrong.

answered Mar 28 '21 at 11:57

Tilman Schmidt

3,778
10
23

Running newusers util in cron to batch create users does not run

2 Answers2