Cygwin problem with 'cron' and networking

Hello,
I hope I'm on the right group, but I'm running Cygwin, a UNIX environment
layout over our Windows 2000 Server.

SETUP DESCRIPTION:
Under Windows, C: and D: are the local drives, whereas I mount E:, F: and
G: as network drives, which are shared directories on other Windows computers.
Under Cygwin, these are automatically mounted under /cygdrive/c/, /cygdrive/d/,
/cygdrive/e/, /cygdrive/f/ and /cygdrive/g/.

PROBLEM:
I made a script that makes an 'ls' of each drive as a test (my main goal is
to 'tar' everything on tape for our backups). The strange thing is if I
run the script manually, it works fine, but when I schedule that same script
as a 'cron' job, it fails to access all network drives (/cygdrive/e/,
/cygdrive/f/ and /cygdrive/g/) and only gives the right output for local c
and d drives.

So instead of giving the ls for the network drives, it outputs something like:
"/dev/nst0: drive not found" (don't remember exact phrasing)
And if I 'cron' the 'tar' script for backups, instead of tar-ing the network
drives, it says:
"/cygdrive/e/: No such file or directory"
"/cygdrive/f/: No such file or directory"
"/cygdrive/g/: No such file or directory",
and then proceeds fine with c and d local drives.

Again, these strange problems only occurs when the jobs are started by 'cron';
everything works perfectly if I manually start the scripts.


Any ideas about how to solve this problem? Our server contains critical data,
and I need to get the backup up and running as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance
Luc

On 27 Aug 2003 10:19:56 -0700, rhubarbe <rhubarbe0@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> I hope I'm on the right group, but I'm running Cygwin, a UNIX environment
> layout over our Windows 2000 Server.
>
> SETUP DESCRIPTION:
> Under Windows, C: and D: are the local drives, whereas I mount E:, F: and
> G: as network drives, which are shared directories on other Windows computers.
> Under Cygwin, these are automatically mounted under /cygdrive/c/, /cygdrive/d/,
> /cygdrive/e/, /cygdrive/f/ and /cygdrive/g/.
>
> PROBLEM:
> I made a script that makes an 'ls' of each drive as a test (my main goal is
> to 'tar' everything on tape for our backups). The strange thing is if I
> run the script manually, it works fine, but when I schedule that same script
> as a 'cron' job, it fails to access all network drives (/cygdrive/e/,
> /cygdrive/f/ and /cygdrive/g/) and only gives the right output for local c
> and d drives.
>
> So instead of giving the ls for the network drives, it outputs something like:
> "/dev/nst0: drive not found" (don't remember exact phrasing)
> And if I 'cron' the 'tar' script for backups, instead of tar-ing the network
> drives, it says:
> "/cygdrive/e/: No such file or directory"
> "/cygdrive/f/: No such file or directory"
> "/cygdrive/g/: No such file or directory",
> and then proceeds fine with c and d local drives.
>
> Again, these strange problems only occurs when the jobs are started by 'cron';
> everything works perfectly if I manually start the scripts.
>
>
> Any ideas about how to solve this problem? Our server contains critical data,
> and I need to get the backup up and running as soon as possible.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Luc

I haven't tried to use cygwin in a while, and never got networking
working with it. However I know a little about Windows and Linux
Networking.

In Windows 2000 shares may be set up by user, I'd guess you have read
access, but the cron job, being run as a different user doesn't have
access to the shares. It's worth investigating anyhow. Sorry I can't
be more help.

GL,

Michael C.
--
mcsuper5@usol.com http://mcsuper5.freeshell.org/
Registered Linux User #303915 http://counter.li.org/