Why service (start|stop) can not be called from cron?

Linux and Unix-Like Linux
1

Hi,

When I googled, I came to know that I can not call the command
"service <service-name> start" from cron, insted I have to specify path to the service-name.

I wanted to know the reason.

Thanks,
Hansini

2

have you tried running it with the full path to the command "service?" when you are running things in cron, you do not have a full environment unless you source one. Things that work for a user will not work in cron as a result.

Also, it is a good practice to not use the "service" command in a script. Instead, you should use the init script itself such as:

/etc/init.d/somedaemon start
3

Thanks! Mark.

Yes I tried by specifying path to the init script in cron. I wanted to know why. Now I got the answer.

4

Maybe the service command can't found, try to use /sbin/service ..

If it works, you need to add PATH env variable in cron job.