strange output from cronjob for backup script

[erinsaurus87]

hi all,
I'm very confused as to why I am getting this error message when I run a cronjob for a backup script I'm working on:

mkdir: cannot create directory `/home/erind/socprojects_backups/10_19_2011\r/\r': No such file or directory

The script leading up to this error is:

# ./SocProjects/cronjobs/weekly_fullbackup.sh
# Backup script for SOC project files and mysql database, to be executed weekly.
#################################
# Assign DTG and Date variables #
# to $a & $b respectively    #
#################################
a=$(date +%T-%d_%m_%Y)
b=$(date +%m_%d_%Y)
########################################
# Backup Site Directory - files and db #
########################################
### echo command states the name of the directory being made for the current backup,
### where the filesystem/code and database backup copies will go. The mkdir command
### actually creates the directory.
echo "mkdir /home/erind/socprojects_backups/".$b
mkdir /home/erind/socprojects_backups/$b/

I'm really confused because I wrote this script modeled after another backup script that does not have this problem. I don't get why the output is showing me "\r/\r"

Any help appreciated!

[leetuckert]

Re: strange output from cronjob for backup script

This works for me. I think you might have some embedded, non-displayable characters in the that assigns $b? Did you cut and paste this from something another file? I typed in the part that assigns $b and issued a mkdir ~/$b/ and it created the directory without issue.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: strange output from cronjob for backup script

Hmm.

I created the following script to test:

b=$(date +%m_%d_%Y)
echo "mkdir /home/greenman/junk/" .$b
mkdir /home/greenman/junk/$b/

Note there is no "junk" directory
Running it produces:

greenman@Wolfenstein:~$ ./junk.sh
mkdir /home/greenman/junk/ .10_19_2011
mkdir: cannot create directory `/home/greenman/junk/10_19_2011/': No such file or directory

which is right -- cannot create a directory under a non-existent directory.

\r is a carriage return character, don't know where the double CR is coming from. Can't reproduce the error here.

I concur there must be some embedded characters somewhere.

[erinsaurus87]

Re: strange output from cronjob for backup script

I cloned another .sh file in my Netbeans IDE and edited there and then used Filezilla to move it to the appropriate cronJobs folder on my server.

Do you know how I can determine if I have any of these hidden embedded characters?

Also when I delete the trailing / from the directory name it works, but creates a directory with ?? at the end of the name.

i.e. 10_18_2011??

Should I just try creating a new file in vi on the server and hand typing it out?

[erinsaurus87]

Re: strange output from cronjob for backup script

i used :

sed -n 'l' myfile.txt

and it showed me that I have "\r$" at the end of every line

[wizard10000]

Re: strange output from cronjob for backup script

i used :

sed -n 'l' myfile.txt

and it showed me that I have "\r$" at the end of every line

My guess is the file was created on a Windows machine and uploaded in binary instead of ASCII mode.

Windows adds a carriage return + a line feed to the end of every line in a text file while *nix adds only the line feed. If your FTP client uploads a text file created on a Windows machine in binary mode you get the carriage returns - uploading in ASCII mode strips those carriage returns out.