[FIXED] How to set environment variable for my user from cronjob in debian linux?

Issue

I was trying to set environment variable from my cronjob. Apparently crontab is running on different shell than normal scripts when i run them on my user.

This is my crontab:

* * * * * /home/jan_necinski_binance/miniconda3/bin/python gethistoricals.py >> output.txt

and this is my file that is running in crontab:

import pandas as pd
from binance.client import Client
import os

client = Client(os.getenv('API_KEY'), os.getenv('API_SECRET'))

def GetHistoricalData(symbol: str, ST: int, LT: int, interval: str, to: str):
    df = pd.DataFrame(client.get_historical_klines(symbol, interval, str(LT) + ' days ago UTC', to))
    closes = pd.DataFrame(df[4])
    closes.columns = ['Close']
    closes['ST'] = closes.Close.rolling(ST - 1).sum()
    closes['LT'] = closes.Close.rolling(LT - 1).sum()
    closes.dropna(inplace=True)
    return closes

def HistST(hist):
    histST = str(hist['ST'].values[0])
    return histST

def HistLT(hist):
    histLT = str(hist['LT'].values[0])
    return histLT

os.environ['ST'] = HistST(GetHistoricalData('ATOMUSDT', 7, 25, '1d', '1 day ago UTC'))
os.environ['LT'] = HistLT(GetHistoricalData('ATOMUSDT', 7, 25, '1d', '1 day ago UTC'))

print(os.getenv('ST'))
print('cronjob works correctly')

So to sum up my problem is that crontab sets environment variable in different enviroment so my scripts cannot acces them. Please help!!!

Solution

The cron subsystem does not set environment variables. I'll bet you're setting those env vars in your ~/.bashrc. That startup script is not read by non-interactive shells such as those launched by cron. The easiest way to deal with this is to put your env vars in a separate script (I like to name it ~/.environ) then source that file in your ~/.bashrc and your cron job. For example:

* * * * * source ~/.environ; /home/jan_necinski_binance/miniconda3/bin/python gethistoricals.py >> output.txt

Answered By - Kurtis Rader

Answer Checked By - Katrina (PHPFixing Volunteer)