Windows – Scheduling a Perl script with output redirection

perlscheduled-taskwindows

I'm trying to schedule a Perl script to be run from the Windows task scheduler and have the output be redirected to a text file. This seems straight forward, but it's not following the redirection, and instead just being printed in a console window.

I've tried various methods, and I'm assuming it's either not possible, or I'm doing something stupid.

I've tried with and without quotes to no avail. The script either doesn't run, or Windows just ignores the redirection. Currently I'm using something like:

perl %Scripts%\Perl\network_information.pl > %Dropbox%\Random\network_information_<machinename>.pl

Which obviously works in a command window, and runs in a scheduled task, but with the redirection being completely ignored. I've tried it with quotes as well, and it just continues to ignore the output redirection.

I'm going to run this from multiple machines, so I'd like it to work from a scheduled task. I'm assuming it would probably work a batch file and then scheduling the batch, but I'd like to avoid that if possible. Any help would be appreciated.

Best Answer

Put the perl command in a batch file and then call the batch file from Task Scheduler

@echo off
set Dropbox=abc
perl.exe myfile.pl > %Dropbox% 2>&1

Related Solutions

Windows scheduled task fails to complete with error code 0xc000013a

Troubleshooting scheduled scripts:

If you haven't already, check the Scheduled Tasks log file, in the GUI under Advanced > View Log. Search the file for "***" to find the most recent entries, and you may see a little extra error info.
Define a log file to capture output, and send both standard out and standard error there. Change any echo OFF to echo ON to be sure you're not supressing any error messages.
For example, if your script is called ftp.data.cmd then your scheduled task might look like this,

cmd /c ftp.data.cmd >> ftp.data.log 2>&1
Is the script hanging? Maybe the task scheduler is killing the script (hence the CTRL+C error code) after some specified period of time. Add some of these at strategic points in your scipt,

echo %DATE% %TIME%
Are you sure the account running the script has permissions / access to everything in the script?
If you can't get any joy, run this command and post the output here, maybe we can start with the scheduling,

schtasks /query /v /fo LIST /s YOURSERVER

How to Run a .bat File in a Scheduled Task Without a Window

You could run it silently using a Windows Script file instead. The Run Method allows you running a script in invisible mode. Create a .vbs file like this one

Dim WinScriptHost
Set WinScriptHost = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WinScriptHost.Run Chr(34) & "C:\Scheduled Jobs\mybat.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WinScriptHost = Nothing

and schedule it. The second argument in this example sets the window style. 0 means "hide the window."

Complete syntax of the Run method:

 object.Run(strCommand, [intWindowStyle], [bWaitOnReturn])

Arguments:

object: WshShell object.
strCommand: String value indicating the command line you want to run. You must include any parameters you want to pass to the executable file.
intWindowStyle: Optional. Integer value indicating the appearance of the program's window. Note that not all programs make use of this information.
bWaitOnReturn: Optional. Boolean value indicating whether the script should wait for the program to finish executing before continuing to the next statement in your script. If set to true, script execution halts until the program finishes, and Run returns any error code returned by the program. If set to false (the default), the Run method returns immediately after starting the program, automatically returning 0 (not to be interpreted as an error code).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows scheduled task fails to complete with error code 0xc000013a

How to Run a .bat File in a Scheduled Task Without a Window

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