Django_Crontab does not seem to run

Question

hoping I can get some guidance on django crontab.

I have the following set up: in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django_crontab',
    ........
    ]

#other settings not related to crontab

CRONJOBS = [
    ('*/1 * * * * ', 'my_app.cron.cronjob')
]

in my my_app/cron.py(for now I have a model with the name 'name'):

def cronjob():
    total_ref = models.Count.objects.get(name='name')
    total_ref.total += 1
    total_ref.save()
    return()

in my my_app/models.py:

class Count(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True, null=True)
    total = models.IntegerField(blank=True, null=True)
    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

When i run the following:

$ python manage.py crontab add
crontab: no crontab for user
  adding cronjob: (26ea74b6ee863259e86bcab90f96ec1a) -> ('*/1 * * * * ', 'ms_app.cron.switch_count')

And when i check to see if it is in my crontab

$ crontab -l
*/1 * * * *  /Path_to_env/bin/python /Path_to_my_app/my_project/manage.py crontab run 26ea74b6ee863259e86bcab90f96ec1a # django-cronjobs for myl_project

i am running python 3.8.2 with Django 3.2.5 and django_crontab 0.7.1

With all of this checked I still do not get any changes when I go and check my model entry (total)

Do you have a cron daemon running? Look in your system's logs to see if it's running that job. — AKX, Oct 07 '21 at 11:48
I get this in my mail PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: /Path_to_env/bin/python/pyvenv.cfg Looking into this now — Nicholas Bartlett, Oct 07 '21 at 11:57

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 15:44

The problem did not lie in my code, what I needed to do was add my cron to full disk access. Followed this link.

Included below is an extract of the problem and the solution:

The problem

Those familiar with UNIX-like systems may know about cron, a tiny, well-designed job scheduler that’s installed in all macOS systems and most Linux distributions.

Cron lets you set time-based rules for job execution, so that you can automate things like backups, health checks, setting safe file permissions, etc.

With the introduction of Mojave’s access control mechanism, cron jobs can no longer access certain directories because they hold sensitive data, but what happens when our cron job works with that data?

The fix

Mojave let’s you add apps and binaries to the “Full Disk Access” whitelist, so let’s see which binary runs my cron jobs:

$ ps aux | grep cron
root            201  0.0  0.0  4295936  1188  ??  Ss  11:50PM  0:00.31 /usr/sbin/cron

Here we see that the binary that runs the system’s cron jobs is /usr/sbin/cron.

Granting Full Disk Access to cron

Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access.
open system settings, go to the security and privacy section, on the privacy tab, click on the full disk access item
Click on the (+) icon to add an item to the list
Press command+shift+G to open the Go to Folder… dialog, type /usr/sbin/cron and press Enter: open the go-to-folder dialog and search for /usr/sbin
Select the cron file and click Open: select /usr/sbin/cron

That’s it! Now my script can access my user’s $HOME/Library folder and all its contents! click ok.

Also there is a warning with using the above:

Warning: this is not a great idea security-wise, if a malicious actor can create cron jobs or edit the scripts ran as cron jobs, he or she would have Full Disk Access too. Monitor the system’s installed cron jobs manually or with a tool such as KnockKnock and proceed with caution.

Django_Crontab does not seem to run

1 Answers1

The problem

The fix

Granting Full Disk Access to cron