Cron truncating command lines when date command with format controls used

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • cron appears to be truncating the command line so the job does not complete/run.

  • Add cron jobs which use the date command like these:

34 10 * * * date +%m > /tmp/nb1
34 10 * * * date '+%m' > /tmp/nb2
34 10 * * * date "+%m" > /tmp/nb3
  • The jobs when run but not create the files in /tmp. cron log shows cron is truncating the command line before running it.
CROND[11853]: ($NAME) CMD (date +)
CROND[11855]: ($NAME) CMD (date '+)
CROND[11857]: ($NAME) CMD (date "+)
  • If format controls are not used, full command is executed.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

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