Cron: command not found

Problem

When executing a bash file via cron, I get this error:

dar: command not found

Solution

Within the crontab file, specify PATH including /usr/local/bin:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin

Explanation

I recently compiled dar, which made dar move from /usr/bin to /usr/local/bin. (You can find out the location from where a program is started by typing which name-of-program.)

Unix Crontab - setting up cron jobs using crontab - Environment:

• "cron invokes the command from the user's HOME directory with the shell, (/usr/bin/sh).
• cron supplies a default environment for every shell, defining:

HOME=user's-home-directory
LOGNAME=user's-login-id
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:.
SHELL=/usr/bin/sh

Users who desire to have their .profile executed must explicitly do so in the crontab entry or in a script called by the entry.

Journal

$> which dar  # Shows me where the command is located
/usr/local/bin/dar
$> crontab -e  # Added 'set' to crontab to reveal settings during cron

The 'set' command within cron shows me:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin
PS4='+ '

The PATH doesn't contain /usr/local/bin so that's why dar can't be found.

Newbie: Intro to cron

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