Problem install crontab in developer container

dawuid 2025-07-11 22:43:27 UTC #1

Hello,

have an EGroupware (23.1.20250506, PHP 8.4.7) instance according to these instructions

Here I cannot install the crontab under egw > admin > async services.
I get the following error message:
“Error: /usr/bin/crontab not found or other error!”

It may fail in this line:

github.com

EGroupware/egroupware/blob/master/api/src/Asyncservice.php#L733C3-L733C111


		if (function_exists('popen') && ($crontab = popen('/bin/sh -c "'.$this->crontab.' -l" 2>&1','r')) !== False)

What is the easiest way to fix the problem?
Thanks and best regards, Axel

RalfBecker 2025-07-12 05:05:51 UTC #2

It’s done automatic in the container entrypoint script.

There’s nothing you have to do.

Ralf

dawuid 2025-07-13 22:25:19 UTC #3

Hi Ralf,
do you mean development/Dockerfile and development/entrypoint.sh?

Is there a step missing or is the manual not up-to-date? https://github.com/EGroupware/egroupware/tree/master/doc/docker/development
The Dockerfile and entrypoint.sh is missing after using this manual.

I’m using Ubuntu 24.04 and after a fresh deployment I still see this error message:
Error: /usr/bin/crontab not found or other error!

I don’t know, how to fix it.

Regards, Axel

RalfBecker 2025-07-14 08:30:49 UTC #4

The crontab-entry is install here and cron services is started inside the container.

You’re not meant to use the [Install Crontab] button on a development system.
On the containerized production system we install a patch, to disable it.

Ralf

dawuid 2025-07-15 14:38:42 UTC #6

Hello,
then my problem is that the AsyncJobs are not executed.
It concerns the image: egroupware/development:latest
I have the same problem, no matter if I pull or build the image

Axel

RalfBecker 2025-08-18 06:22:41 UTC #7

As I wrote above, async-service is started via cron and a cron-job inside the container:

docker exec -it egroupware ps axf
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
15142 pts/0    Rs+    0:00 ps axf
    1 ?        Ss     0:31 php-fpm: master process (/etc/php/8.4/fpm/php-fpm.conf)
   74 ?        Ss     0:01 /usr/sbin/cron
15115 ?        S      0:00 php-fpm: pool www
15116 ?        S      0:00 php-fpm: pool www
15117 ?        S      0:00 php-fpm: pool www
15118 ?        S      0:00 php-fpm: pool www

Do you have cron running in your container?

Can you execute the job manually?

docker exec egroupware sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/egroupware/api/asyncwrapper.php

Ralf

dawuid 2025-09-14 11:55:06 UTC #8

H Ralf,
yes, cron is running and I can execute the job manually.

But the config /etc/cron.d/egroupware is missing.
After execute the command from https://github.com/EGroupware/egroupware/blob/8f064a259676452bf021a89481021cb3875dbf28/doc/docker/development/entrypoint.sh#L57
manually inside egroupware container, async-service is working.

cd /var/www/egroupware
sed -e 's/apache/www-data/' -e 's|/usr/share|/var/www|g' doc/rpm-build/egroupware.cron > /etc/cron.d/egroupware

Axel