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answer: direct
beat: tooling
source: 1 article · updated: November 13, 2026
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Why does my script work in the terminal but fail in cron?

Cron runs jobs with a minimal environment: a short PATH, no interactive shell setup, and a different working directory. Use absolute paths for commands and files, set PATH and variables explicitly in the crontab, and test with the same minimal environment.

Answered in

Cron Expressions and the Gotchas That Bite in Production

Five fields, four special characters, and a handful of traps: the OR rule, the tiny environment, silent output, overlapping runs and time zones.

Crashtech Editorial November 13, 2026 Developer Tooling

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