KeyError 'PATH' when running script from cron

Question

I have a Python script that works when run from the normal Terminal (and from any location) but fails when running from cron, throwing a KeyError: 'PATH' error.

A comment on this post suggests that this is because cron runs with a different environment. When I switch using env -i /bin/bash --noprofile --norc as suggested, the KeyError is raised and appears to be from os.environ["PATH"] not being set, which I can confirm.

How do I set that, and to what? Can I make this permanent for cron?

EDIT: My question is very similar to some others, but different in that it threw a specific error from Python – I think keeping this question will help if anyone gets the same KeyError?

what causes the error exactly? Do you try to open a file that is supposed to be contained in the same folder as your script? If yes, you can get the path of your current script via os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)) if that's of any help. — offeltoffel
– offeltoffel, Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 15:15
Possible duplicate of How to get CRON to call in the correct PATHs — Laurent LAPORTE
– Laurent LAPORTE, Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 15:17
It's an installed library calling os.environ["PATH]. My libraries are all in my user's bin folder. — JeffThompson
– JeffThompson, Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 15:17
@LaurentLAPORTE – very similar, yeah didn't see that one in my searching. Doesn't come from the KeyError though, so maybe this specific situation is helpful to others? — JeffThompson
– JeffThompson, Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 15:20

Laurent LAPORTE · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-19 15:16:27Z

2

You need to define your environment variables, like PATH in your /etc/crontab file.

Eg.:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

# m h dom mon dow user   command
01 01 * * 1-5 root python /path/to/file.py

See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2409369/1513933

answered Sep 19, 2017 at 15:16

Laurent LAPORTE

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3 Comments

JeffThompson Over a year ago

Super helpful – is there a way to test this outside of a cron job? (ie directly from the Terminal instead of changing the times over and over?)

Laurent LAPORTE Over a year ago

Yes, you can try su - login, where login is the login of the cron. And then execute the Python code.

JeffThompson Over a year ago

Hmm, how do I know the login of the cron? (Your solution worked, by the way!)

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