MacOS – Getting unknown command error when trying to run script via cron

bashcronmacos

I recently had to re-install 10.9.5 (default install) and am now finding that bash scripts that run perfectly from the command line (~/Me…) no longer work using crontab. I use crontab to invoke "Diskutil unmount volumeX" but am getting mail from cron saying "diskutil" command not found. Is it a PATH issue and if so how would I fix it.
Thank you in advance for any help.

Best Answer

cron uses /usr/bin:/bin as the default PATH and diskutil is in /usr/sbin.

Specify the full path to diskutil or add a line like PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin to the start of your crontab.

Enter which diskutil to find its path, or enter echo $PATH to find the path where your commands are working.

Unload Agents

#!/bin/bash
for id in `ps aux | grep -v grep | grep MyAgent | awk {'print $2'}`
do
    launchctl bsexec $id launchctl unload /Library/LaunchAgents/myAgent.plist
done

Replace MyAgent with the name of your Launch Agent.

Load Agents

#!/bin/bash
for pid_uid in $(ps -axo pid,uid,args | grep -i "[l]oginwindow.app" | awk '{print $1 "," $2}'); do

    pid=$(echo $pid_uid | cut -d, -f1)
    uid=$(echo $pid_uid | cut -d, -f2)

    launchctl bsexec "$pid" chroot -u "$uid" / launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/myAgent.plist
done

On OS X 10.11 and Later

From the comment by vrrathod about OS X 10.11, El Capitain, use:

launchctl bootstrap gui/$uid /Library/LaunchAgents/myAgent.plist

Best Answer

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Unload Agents

Load Agents

On OS X 10.11 and Later

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