chef can't create cron -

i tried simplest example given http://docs.opscode.com/resource_cron.html#examples

    cron "name_of_cron_entry"         hour "8"         weekday "6"         mailto "admin@opscode.com"         action :create     end 

i use knife ssh make recipe run on chef client, , client gives error:

error executing action create on resource cron[name_of_cron_entry] error updating state of name_of_cron_entry, exit: 1 

has met same problem before? solutions?

i stumbled same problem , found example using had newlines in it. problem cron provider runs crontab -u user - , pipes stdin process. appears doesn't accept newlines whatever reason.

in /opt/chef/embedded/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/chef-11.4.0/lib/chef/provider/cron.rb, found this:

status = popen4("crontab -u #{@new_resource.user} -", :waitlast => true) |pid, stdin, stdout, stderr|   stdin.write crontab     end     if status.exitstatus > 0       raise chef::exceptions::cron, "error updating state of #{@new_resource.name}, exit: #{status.exitstatus}"     end 

strangely enough, running example seems work me, , creates empty crontab entry root:

root@chef-test-01:~# crontab -l # chef name: name_of_cron_entry mailto=admin@opscode.com * 8 * * 6 

this suggests me using different version of chef gem & cron provider.

so, depending on version of chef gem using, this bug

for reference, example didn't work me based on one:

cron "cookbooks_report"   action node.tags.include?('cookbooks-report') ? :create : :delete   minute "0"   hour "0"   weekday "1"   user "opscode"   mailto "nharvey@opscode.com"   home "/srv/opscode-community-site/shared/system"   command %q{     cd /srv/opscode-community-site/current &&     env rubylib="/srv/opscode-community-site/current/lib"     rails_asset_id=`git rev-parse head` rails_env="#{rails_env}"     bundle exec rake cookbooks_report   } end 

the command running was:

  command %q{     cd /path/to/src/my-project &&     bundle exec my_script.rb   } 

there 2 fixes worked me:

1. use command 'cd /path/to/src/my-project && bundle exec my_script.rb'
2. change cron provider cron_d provider cron cookbook

note: don't think documentation either provider in chef correct however... newlines not supported in crontab format unless escaped backslash \. in testing second fix above, resulting crontab not valid , had newlines between commands not escaped.