I have a Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 box (that cannot be upgraded) running 24×7. It has several jobs in /etc/cron.daily, including our backup scripts. I noticed several weeks ago that the backup script was not running with any regularity.
This morning, I ran the cron directory manually (nice run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily) which is seen in both /etc/anacrontab and /etc/crontab. I got an email for logwatch, but not for any of the other jobs. Our backup scripts, specifically, have a large amount of output, and take a few hours. I have tried rearranging the jobs in /etc/cron.daily, with no effect, and I've recently removed anacron, since this box should "never" experience downtime.
Running any of the jobs individually seems to work fine. I've just added the backup script to /etc/crontab manually to see if it runs properly.
Does anyone have other suggestions?
Best Answer
The problem turns out to be that Debian does not allow '.' in the filename of a cron job stored in
/etc/cron.(d|daily|weekly|monthly). Remove the '.', and the job runs fine.