[FIXED] Cron and virtualenv

Issue

I am trying to run a Django management command from cron. I am using virtualenv to keep my project sandboxed.

I have seen examples here and elsewhere that show running management commands from within virtualenv's like:

0 3 * * * source /home/user/project/env/bin/activate && /home/user/project/manage.py command arg

However, even though syslog shows an entry when the task should have started, this task never actually runs (the log file for the script is empty). If I run the line manually from the shell, it works as expected.

The only way I can currently get the command to run via cron, is to break the commands up and put them in a dumb bash wrapper script:

#!/bin/sh
source /home/user/project/env/bin/activate
cd /home/user/project/
./manage.py command arg

EDIT:

ars came up with a working combination of commands:

0 3 * * * cd /home/user/project && /home/user/project/env/bin/python /home/user/project/manage.py command arg

At least in my case, invoking the activate script for the virtualenv did nothing. This works, so on with the show.

Solution

You should be able to do this by using the python in your virtual environment:

/home/my/virtual/bin/python /home/my/project/manage.py command arg

EDIT: If your django project isn't in the PYTHONPATH, then you'll need to switch to the right directory:

cd /home/my/project && /home/my/virtual/bin/python ...

You can also try to log the failure from cron:

cd /home/my/project && /home/my/virtual/bin/python /home/my/project/manage.py > /tmp/cronlog.txt 2>&1

Another thing to try is to make the same change in your manage.py script at the very top:

#!/home/my/virtual/bin/python

Answered By - ars