Blank html file when using cron.d

[benhorstmann]

Quick summary. Weathermap install is stand-alone, not as an integrated cacti plugin. Upgraded last week and fought through a handful of issues, ended up blowing away the www/weathermap folder and pulling down a new one (a simple over-write left some junk behind that was causing issues.) After that, I fought through a PHP split/explode issue and now everything works like a charm... except when scheduling the map generation in cron.

Weathermap 97c.
Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS
Cacti 0.8.7e


I can run it manually and it generates the png and html files

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sudo ./weathermap --config configs/core-network.conf --output core-network.png --htmloutput core-network.html

If I add it to cron.d or crontab, (tried multiple users including root to wave off permission issues), I end up with a blank .png file.

Syslog shows:

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Apr  8 15:26:01 freshet CRON[26692]: (www-data) CMD (./weathermap --config configs/core-network.conf --output core-network.png --htmloutput core-network.html >/dev/null 2>&1)

Current info in my root crontab:

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#* * * * * /var/www/weathermap/weathermap --config /var/www/weathermap/configs/core-network.conf --output /var/www/weathermap/core-network.png --htmloutput /var/www/weathermap/core-network.html

As far as the syntax in the cron job, i've tried

*adding and removing the full path to the commands
*adding and removing the php and the ./ in front of the weathermap executable
*trying various users (as mentioned above, inc root)

Any direction would be appreciated. Since it runs right off the CLI I'm stumped.

[Howie]

Assuming you haven't really got the '#' at the beginning of the line, making this into a comment...

I would see what happens if you change the crontab entry to:

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* * * * * cd /var/www/weathermap/; /var/www/weathermap/weathermap --config /var/www/weathermap/configs/core-network.conf --output /var/www/weathermap/core-network.png --htmloutput /var/www/weathermap/core-network.html

It's possible there is some relative path in there. Your command-line test is from the weathermap directory.

Also assuming you don't still have the 2>&1 >/dev/null part, you should be getting mails with any errors, too, though.