[RESOLVED] @reboot doesn't seem to work in cron

Dave Abouav

I put a @reboot <my script> in the cron (using crontab -e). But my python script doesn't seem to launch on reboot. It runs fine if I run it from the command line.

Is @reboot not supported in cron on the Omega?

Thanks,
Dave

Vinicius Batista

As per stated here, OpenWRT/busybox(which onion is based on) does not support "@" expressions.

I almost forgot to mention: you can provide a better behaviour(considering you'll have additional options) using init scripts. You can setup one using the instructions provided here. I have done one last weekend to start my python app with little/no headaches. I suggest give it a try.

Regards,
Vinicius

None None

To run things on startup put the commands in the file /etc/rc.local before the exit 0 line ?
I've done this for a couple of networking scripts I want to run on startup.

Dave Abouav

Thanks all! I put a line in /etc/rc.local and it worked!

Lazar Demin

@Dave-Abouav glad to hear that!
Can you please add [RESOLVED] to the post title?

Tom Gidden

FYI, if you want to start a process to run on startup and continue running, then you can add it to /etc/rc.local, but that'll keep rc.local running until your process finishes (never, possibly)

Instead, you can use start-stop-daemon:

start-stop-daemon -S -b -x /root/project/project-script

You'll need to make sure your script is executable, too. The -b puts the process in the background so it won't hold up execution of the rest of rc.local.