[net.unix-wizards] Argh! My program spazzes when cron runs it!

mike (09/27/82)

I have a frustrating problem (to me anyway).  I have a program that records some
accounting information, setuid to root.  When I myself sit at a
terminal and call up the program, it works fine.  When it is
run by cron via crontab, it doesn't open the accounting file
regardless of the permissions.  I have tried the following glitches:

saying alias root /usr/bin/foo in crontab
giving foo a controlling tty in crontab using >/dev... and </dev...

I've forgotten what else I did now--but what is it about cron that's
screwing things up?  I always thought it ran as root, since that's
how rc starts it up.  My program does not use stdin or stdout.
Suggestions?

Michelle "Mike" Burcher (...duke!mike)