shutdown machine from crontab

[Rick Stevens]

On 09/16/2015 02:06 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
>
> On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 11:05:36 -0800 Antonio Olivares <wingators at inbox.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: maitra.mbox.ignored at inbox.com
>>> Sent: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 20:12:22 -0500
>>> To: users at lists.fedoraproject.org
>>> Subject: Re: shutdown machine from crontab
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Can you try:
>>>
>>> systemctl poweroff
>>>
>>> instead of /usr/bin/poweroff and see if that works?
>>>
>>> Many thanks and best wishes,
>>> Ranjan
>>>
>>
>> Ranjan,
>>
>> Tried it and it does not poweroff machine via crontab.  However, from
>> $ systemctl poweroff
>>
>> does poweroff machine.  What could be preventing it from shutting down.  I will try the -f option suggested also, then report back.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>
> Sorry, I do not have any idea:  you could try /usr/bin/systemctl poweroff but this is just a random stab...

I'm pretty sure this is caused by the fact that crontab entries don't
have a console associated with them and systemctl wants to spit stuff
out to stdout.  You could try redirecting stdout and stderr in your cron
entry:

	systemctl poweroff >/dev/null 2>&1

or possibly launch systemctl in a screen session:

	screen -S "sysshutdown" -d -m systemctl poweroff

The first MAY work (dunno if systemctl is that picky). The second would
run it in a screen session so it would have a stdin, stdout and stderr.
That is assuming you have screen installed (and why wouldn't you?). If
it failed you could "screen -r" and see what error systemctl is
spitting out.

This is just a guess.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    ricks at alldigital.com -
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-          When all else fails, try reading the instructions.        -
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