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This command work manually in WSL Ubuntu but not in cron. Manually it is:

touch /var/www/html/myFile.sh

By cron every minute it is:

* * * * * touch /var/www/html/myFile.sh

Why it's not effective when in cron?

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  • 1
    I don't think WSL starts the cron service by default - have you done so manually?
    – steeldriver
    Jan 15, 2018 at 14:05
  • Oh, you were right. It doesn't. When I've got it started with service cron start it did and the file was creatred successfully. Thanks!
    – Arcticooling
    Jan 15, 2018 at 14:16
  • @steeldriver answer please :-)
    – Rinzwind
    Jan 15, 2018 at 14:55
  • @Rinzwind - done
    – steeldriver
    Jan 15, 2018 at 15:14

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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WSL does not provide a complete Ubuntu environment by default - in particular, it may not start all the conventional system services. At least at the time of writing this answer, cron seems to be one of those, as discussed in this /r/bashonubuntuonwindows/ thread

Crontab Not Working with Bash on Ubuntu on Windows

The suggested solution is to start the service manually: on WSL that is done1 by

service cron start

1 despite being based on Ubuntu 16.04, WSL does not appear to use systemd

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