hello list!! I'm attempting to find out why this cron job isn't running. the host is centos 5.6 on i386 just so you know. 0 3 * * * /bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +%Y%m%d%H%S).sql The job is meant to backup all the databases on a mysql server every day at 3 am. I have checked the backup directory and nothing is showing up for those days. I created the same job to run every minute but just like the job above the backups do not appear. * * * * * /bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +%Y%m%d%H%S).sql I have verified that the cron service is, indeed, running [root at VIRTCENT09:/home/bluethundr/backupdb] #service crond status crond (pid 8053) is running... However I do see the job is running in the cron logs [root at VIRTCENT09:/home/bluethundr/backupdb] #tail /var/log/cron Jul 30 22:59:01 VIRTCENT09 crond[8007]: (root) CMD (/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +) Jul 30 22:59:46 VIRTCENT09 crond[8053]: (CRON) STARTUP (V5.0) Jul 30 23:00:01 VIRTCENT09 crond[8074]: (root) CMD (/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +) Jul 30 23:00:10 VIRTCENT09 crontab[8121]: (root) BEGIN EDIT (root) Jul 30 23:01:01 VIRTCENT09 crond[8134]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly) Jul 30 23:01:01 VIRTCENT09 crond[8135]: (root) CMD (/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +) Jul 30 23:02:01 VIRTCENT09 crond[8157]: (root) CMD (/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +) Jul 30 23:03:02 VIRTCENT09 crond[8265]: (root) CMD (/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +) Jul 30 23:03:13 VIRTCENT09 crontab[8121]: (root) END EDIT (root) Jul 30 23:04:01 VIRTCENT09 crond[8288]: (root) CMD (/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +) Still nothing is appearing in the backup directory. But if i run the command by hand it does work. [root at VIRTCENT09:/home/bluethundr/backupdb] #/bin/alldb > /home/bluethundr/backupdb/alldb-$(date +%Y%m%d%H%S).sql And the file is created: