crontab fails, cannot find aws executable

Question

I am trying to run a backup script on my ec2 amazon server (ubuntu 14.04), to automatically create a snapshot of amazon ebs volumes. Therefore I am using the aws-missing-tools script: https://github.com/colinbjohnson/aws-missing-tools/tree/master/ec2-automate-backup

This my backup script, that triggers ec2-automate-backup-awscli.sh:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin/aws
HOME=/
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/default-java/jre/
MAILTO=xxx.xxxxxx@me.com

AWS_ACCESS_KEY=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AWS_SECRET_KEY=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
/opt/aws/ec2-automate-backup-awscli.sh -r us-east-1 -s tag -t 'Backup,Values=true' -k 31 -p

But i only get this error when scheduling this script with crontab:

26 23 * * * /opt/aws/backup.sh >> /var/log/aws.log 2>&1

Log file: "In order to use ec2-automate-backup-awscli.sh, the executable "aws" must be installed."

Directly executing "sh backup.sh" works fine. (snapshots are created.)

Any ideas?

Where is the `aws` executable located? Run `which aws` to find out, then add it to the script's PATH variable. — Craig Watson, Sep 11 '14 at 23:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 11 '14 at 23:43

Your PATH variable should be a list of directories, so given that your aws executable lives at /usr/local/bin/aws, your PATH should be this:

/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin

Also, you're better off setting the shell via a "hashbang" like so, rather than using the SHELL environment variable, as this will allow crontab to automatically use the correct interpreter:

#!/bin/bash

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 20 '16 at 05:42

I had this exact error. Assuming that you have the prerequisites installed and that running the command manually works, but not in Cron, it may be that the correct path is not exposed to the cron command. You can fix this by running crontab -e and then entering the path directly into the cron tab:

# Export the path so that the scripts run correctly PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/opt/aws/bin:/root/bin

score -1 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 11 '14 at 23:58

-1

The dot character is not allowed in the filename of a cron script unless 14.04 truly has enabled Linux Standards Base, just A-Za-z0-9- - see this Launchpad Bug for more info

Rename "backup.sh" to "backupsh".

A better test than "sh backup.sh" would be "run-parts --verbose /opt/aws/". If run-parts does not show your filename, the cron will not run it.

edited Sep 11 '14 at 23:58

Craig Watson

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answered Sep 11 '14 at 23:49

rjt

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True, but not quite appropriate to this example - the OP is using `crontab`, and not `/etc/cron.d` as the bug refers to. – Craig Watson Sep 12 '14 at 00:00
Yes, i had confused the two because /etc/crontab calls run-parts. i noticed later his crontab file is formatted without the username and was going to look into that. Thanks for the bug posting link. – rjt Sep 12 '14 at 00:41
Thanks again for the [Launchpad Bug 706565](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cron/+bug/706565) as i entered links to LSB specs that say not only can /etc/cron.*/files.have.dots.theycan.multiple.dots.sh – rjt Sep 12 '14 at 02:14

crontab fails, cannot find aws executable

3 Answers3