[09:59] <tdr112> morning all
[10:00] <tdr112> how would one find the ful path to a command eg touch
[10:02] <ebel> which
[10:02] <ebel> or type
[10:03] <ebel> actually "type $COMMANDNAME" is better because it works on shell bultins etc.
[10:03] <ebel> "which" will return just the path so it's handy if you want to use it in scripts
[10:04] <ebel> e.g. "ls -l $(which vim)" will tell you the size & perms etc of the vim command
[10:05] <ebel> Can also be used to tell you the deb package that a programme is in:
[10:05] <ebel> dpkg -S $(which pv)
[10:05] <ebel> This is Unix, you should know this.
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[10:15] <tdr112> thanks ebel
[10:29] <tdr112> hey guys whats the best way to debug a cron job
[10:34] <slashtommy> stdout and stderr from a cron job should be sent to root's mailbox by default
[10:35] <slashtommy> or whichever user is setup as a the alias for root (/etc/aliases)
[10:45] <ebel> or put the output (stdout & atderr) to a file and look at it
[10:45] <ebel> You can use "env" command to print the current environment variables.
[10:46] <ebel> and look in the log file, where it starts the cron, you can see if the cron is running or not
[10:46] <tdr112> i have pit stdout and err to a file and getting stuff now
[10:46] <ebel> environmental variables & PATHs & user account are usually the things that mess up crons
[10:47] <tdr112> i think i have fixed it
[10:47] <tdr112> ebel: that what it was forgot to change to the pull path for one of them
[10:55] <ebel> ah full paths
[10:55] <ebel> in python you can standardise paths with os.path.abspath()
[10:55] <ebel> You can do it on the command line with `realpath`
[10:56] <ebel> tis always good to sanitise input data from the user ASAP
[11:05] <davem> don't forget file permissions, chances are cron isn't running as your user/the user you think
[11:35] <tdr112> ok cron is runn when i tell it do */5 for every 5 min but not when i set a time
[11:35] <tdr112> could the cron user be using a different time setting
[11:37] <ebel> that question doesn't make sens
[11:38] <ebel> what "time string" are you using?
[11:38] <ebel> AFAIK cron is run as root, it just can run certain lines as a a different user
[11:41] <ebel> Only root is God. Only root can change to a different user. Sometimes root will, through the power of sudo & setuids, allow other users to change to other user accounts, but they do that by becoming one with root, then moving to another user
[11:41] <ebel> amen
[11:42] <tdr112> i am running it as root
[11:43] <tdr112> so if i set the cron job to run every 5 min using the following */5 * * * * ls
[11:43] <tdr112> it runs
[11:43] <tdr112> but not 45 11 * * * ls
[11:43] <slashtommy> it's not 11.45 yet
[11:44] <tdr112> yep
[11:44] <tdr112> that was just an eg
[11:44] <slashtommy> 45 11 * * *     root    /bin/ls
[11:45] <ebel> 'root' might not be needed. depends if you're using "crontab -e". /etc/crontab, etc.
[11:45] <tdr112> i am using sudo crontab -e
[11:45] <ebel> "root" is not needed then
[11:46]  * ebel is unsure, that line looks ok...
[12:01] <tdr112> ok found it
[12:01] <tdr112> timezone
[12:01] <tdr112> its always time zones
[12:01] <tdr112> root had a different time zone set than my user
[12:01] <tdr112> thank you all for you help
[12:06] <ebel> hahah
[12:06] <ebel> always always use UTC
[12:06] <ebel> i don't really know much of changing server's timezones, I didn't think different users had different timezones.
[12:06] <ebel> thought it was all the one server time
[12:06] <ebel> tdr112: use ntp to keep your clocks up to day
[12:06] <ebel> *date
[13:27] <dumb1224> Hi I recently noticed that turning on 'smooth scrolling' on firefox is not much better
[13:28] <dumb1224> is such a feature implemented in firefox or gtk+ and so on?
[16:09] <Chat3619> Hi room
[16:10] <ebel> hello Chat3619
[16:37] <slashtommy> hey BenChapman
[16:45] <BenChapman> Hey slashtommy :)
[17:08] <slashtommy> BenChapman: how you finding life in town?
[17:16] <tdr112> has anyone setup a vpn server on ubuntu
[17:20] <slashtommy> what kind of VPN?
[17:23] <tdr112> i am not too sure
[17:23] <tdr112> just been told me need one asap for a 3rd party
[17:23] <slashtommy> what equipment are you supporting?
[17:24] <tdr112> just reading up on them now , finding out do a need a router or is it some thing i do on a server
[17:24] <slashtommy> a server can be a router
[17:25] <slashtommy> and in fact, making it a VPN server - you usually add a tun or tap interface, thereby making your server multihomed, therefore making it into a router
[17:27] <tdr112> hmm, it sounds hard
[17:28] <slashtommy> openvpn is pretty easy to setup, a couple of hours
[17:29] <slashtommy> it uses key based authentication, so very convenient if you're connecting devices (rather than people with their laptops)
[17:29] <slashtommy> if you're wanting to provide a VPN for remote workers, you may be better off with buying an off-the-shelf router to do that
[17:30] <slashtommy> the cost would be much cheaper than your time
[17:30] <slashtommy> anyway, it's home time
[17:54] <BenChapman> slashtommy: great :) Really enjoying being central
[17:54] <BenChapman> no major issues with noise as-yet... but I wasn't there saturday night
[18:59] <czajkowski> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKBpYwuk1Uw
[19:16] <slashtommy> czajkowski: what's the story?
[19:16] <czajkowski> as of now I'm coming
[19:16] <czajkowski> but that may change on thursday
[19:16] <czajkowski> sorry I cant confirm either way
[19:17] <slashtommy> oh
[19:18] <slashtommy> we can plan for friday night :)
[19:18] <slashtommy> or rather, what's the plan?