Use of hdparm state in script works only manually and not by cron

Question

I use the following if ... then test in an auto shutdown script which is started every 15 minutes by cron.

# Check if disk1 is currently spinning
    if [ "$(hdparm -C /dev/sdb1 | grep -o "active/idle\|standby")" = "active/i$
            logit disk1 running, auto shutdown terminated
            return 1

This works fine if I start the script manually with ./autoshutdown.sh. The disk state will be detected correctly.

But if cron is starting this script and the state is not detected the else statement is used.

Why this difference? And what do I need to change?

Answer 1

Probably because your $PATH differs in cron jobs, and it cannot find hdparm. Specify the whole path to hdparm, which you can find via type -p hdparm.

I also suggest running a cron job like:

env | sort >$HOME/cron.env
echo $PATH | tr ':' "\n" >$HOME/cron.path

To see what your cron environment looks like. More generally, look at all your run environments.