Thread: Need Help running cron as root

i have external usb hard drive spins down every 10 min. commands in 'hdparm' nothing override internal settings. so, wrote script touch file every 5 minutes, , run root because of mount command, , want run every user. script executable, owned root, , root group, 755 permissions.

no_sleep.sh in /usr/sbin:

code:

#!/bin/bash  # script keep external drive spinning down    diskmounted=$(mount | grep backup | wc -c)    if [ $diskmounted -gt 0 ]      touch /mnt/backup/.nosleep  fi

in terminal, i've editted crontab root by:

code:

sudo crontab -e -u root

this looks like:

code:

#keep external hd spinning down touching file every 5 min  */5 * * * * root /usr/sbin/no_sleep.sh > ~/desktop/no_sleep_test.txt

i'm not getting hidden file .nosleep in /mnt/backup, or output desktop asked. doing wrong?

you don't need -u option, since sudo implies "root":

code:

sudo crontab -e

try (replace "your_username"):

code:

*/5 * * * * /usr/sbin/no_sleep.sh >/home/your_username/desktop/no_sleep_test.txt 2>&1

also, "sdparm" command might let change drive's settings. may need install it.

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