i have a cronjob:
0 9 * * * rsync -a mydir remote_machine:
i installed this with 'crontab -e'. i have an ssh-agent running, and when i execute the rsync command itself it works w/o any user interaction or password entry, but the cronjob fails with the following message:
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:11:00 -0600 (CST)
From: Cron Daemon <me@my_machine.my_domain>
To: me@my_machine.my_domain
Subject: Cron <me@my_machine> rsync -a /home/me/mydir remote_machine:
Permission denied, please try again.
Permission denied, please try again.
Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-with-mic,password).
rsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]
rsync error: unexplained error (code 255) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-35.2/rsync/io.c(452)
[sender=2.6.9]
why doesn't this work? i know the cronjobs run w/ me as the user (if i run '* * * * * touch /tmp/a' i own the file) so i assume the rsync is logging in as me using my private key…
Best Answer
Your cron session shell has no knowledge of the ssh agent, so can't talk to it.
When the agent is started, you can put the information needed for the agent someplace for the cron session to pick up.
Example:
Then add your key to the agent.
Now your cron job should do this before attempting to use ssh:
...after which, the ssh session should proceed normally.