I have this in my crontab:
* * * * * cd /etc && . ./cron.sh>>cron.log
In my cron.sh (which is executable) I have:
#!/bin/sh
echo "hello world"
export MyVar="abcd"
It runs both with cron and manually, however the environment variable is only set when I run it manually with the command:
. ./cron.sh
Can anyone please help. I know its something to do with source but I cant figure it out.
This does not work either:
* * * * * cd /etc && sh ./cron.sh>>cron.log
. will export variables in the current shell, which is the one spawned by the cron, not yours.
If you want to add an extra variable to your shells, use the ~/.profile et al (specifically the /etc/profile that is shared by all users).
I'm trying to set a variable for all users
You cannot do that via a cron job.
In fact, in general, you can't do it at all. The environment variables of a shell cannot be set from outside the shell. The UNIX / Linux operating system architecture doesn't allow it.
You could could set an environment variable for all users via /etc/profile except ...
/etc/profile file is only executed when a user logs in, and