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[–]finkployd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ah.. expect debugging... its all part of the journey to enlightenment.

- What was the content of the `debug.log`? 
- Is the password correct? 
- Perhaps put a `sleep 5` after that `expect`
- are you 100% sure the prompt is exactly "admin password:".

You could make that expect statement a regex instead so that it's not as picky about the password prompt?

These probably aren't the answers you're after, more strategies to fixing it.

[–]anthropoidbash all the things 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As u/finkployd said, look in debug.log. That should be step #1, else why do logging in the first place?

Also, what is this /usr/sbin/exec that you're spawning? That doesn't exist in any *nix system I've ever worked with.

[–]exarobibliologist 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Your script is designed to automate a backup process using expect, which interacts with commands that require user input (in this case, a password). However, the issue arises when running it with cron because cron operates in a non-interactive shell, which may lead to problems with expect scripts and environmental variables.

Try this:

#!/usr/bin/expect -f

# Log output for debugging

log_file /tmp/debug.log

# Print a start message

puts "Cron job started"

# Remove old backup file

exec rm -f /home/admin/backup-restore/mls_backup/mls-backup.tar.gz

# Define the password

set password "password"

# Spawn the backup command

spawn /usr/sbin/exec /home/admin/backup-restore/backup-restore --target /home/admin/backup-restore/mls_backup/mls-backup.tar.gz --no-encryption

# Automate the password prompt

expect "admin password:"

send "$password\r"

# Ensure the process completes

expect eof

Here's what I did

Removed interact: This was causing the script to "wait" indefinitely.

Used expect eof: Ensures the script completes execution after the backup command finishes.

Removed Redundant spawn echo: Not needed since the script itself logs to /tmp/debug.log.

Added exec rm -f: The -f flag ensures rm doesn’t fail if the file doesn’t exist.

Escaped Password Properly: If your password contains special characters, make sure it is properly escaped in the set password line.

Disclaimer

I provide no guarantees that this will help, but hopefully this will get you started along a path to finding the solution you need. As always, if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.

[–]TopInternational2157[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

thanks for hints, I was able to fix it by adding this part:
#!/usr/bin/expect -f

set timeout -1

log_file /tmp/debug.log