On Fri, 2019-11-15 at 16:32 -0500, Karl Vogel wrote:

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On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 05:54:07PM +0000, John Horne wrote:

J> In trying to resolve a problem with a cron job, we can see when the job J> starts by looking in the /var/log/cron log file. However, I was asked if J> when the job ends could also be logged. (It seems to be something that J> crops up every so often over the years.)

You could use something like this with your scripts. It works with ksh or bash.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I'm not looking for a 'per-script' solution. Logging when a job starts is performed by crond, so logging when it ends should also be done by crond.

Despite the article I mentioned being from 2011, it seems that Debian 10 still supports the logging of when cron jobs end. Looking into this further it seems that Debian uses anacron, and then applies a patch which provides the '-L' option.

I have raised this with the cronie project on github to try and see why this feature has not been implemented. (It may well be that there are good reasons for it having not happened.) A very quick look at the cronie code seems to indicate it may be possible to implement.

John.

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