[news.software.b] Problem with C News Expire

erf@progress.COM (Eric Feigenson) (05/02/91)

I am having trouble getting C News expire to run from cron.  My configuration: 

C-News, patched through 24-Mar-1991
Sun Sparc SLC, SUNOS 4.1

The following line is in the "news" cron file:
45 1 * * *  "/usr/lib/newsbin/expire/doexpire -v" > /dev/null 2>&1

The cron log indicates that this gets run, but it immediately exits
with exit code "1".  Doexpire should send mail to usenet on failure,
but doesn't (or if it does, it fails, but it doesn't show up in the
sendmail log).  If I log in as news, and run doexpire manually, it
works just fine, and mail gets sent to "usenet" as it should (since I
specify -v).

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on?  I suspect it's not
a C-News or doexpire problem, but a problem with the bozo who's trying
to get this to work (me).

Thanks in advance for any assistance!  Please e-mail replies, unless
you think they'll be of general interest.

-EricF

--
Eric R. Feigenson			UUCP: mit-eddie!progress!erf
Progress Software Corp.		    Internet: erf@progress.com
5 Oak Park
Bedford, MA  01730

henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (05/03/91)

In article <1991May2.154404.6131@progress.com> erf@progress.COM (Eric Feigenson) writes:
>45 1 * * *  "/usr/lib/newsbin/expire/doexpire -v" > /dev/null 2>&1
>
>The cron log indicates that this gets run, but it immediately exits
>with exit code "1"...

Unless your cron is odd, you are not telling it to run `.../doexpire' with
the -v option; you are telling it to run a program named `.../doexpire -v'.
Unsurprisingly, no such program exists.  Try taking out the quotes.
-- 
And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
"beans are more important".             |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry