CRON doesn't run tasks because "/bin/bash: /var/log/cron.log: Permission denied"

Question

I have the following CRON task:

MAILTO="[email protected]"

# Begin Whenever generated tasks for: projectname
30 4 * * * /bin/bash -l -c 'cd /home/deployer/apps/project_production/releases/20150305135322 && bin/rails runner -e production '\''Invoices.run_update'\'' >> /var/log/cron.log 2>&1'

# End Whenever generated tasks for: projectname

But when I take a look on the report that is sent to my email address from the server, there's just following:

/bin/bash: /var/log/cron.log: Permission denied

(the path to the log file is proper)

Which permissions do I have to set for log files of CRON jobs?

Thank you, have a nice day.

EDIT: there is no cron.allow or cron.deny file in the /etc directory.

EDIT2; Tried sudo chmod u+w cron.log, but still the same.

Solution

Looks like it can't create the log file. Check the permissions of /var/log folder. It should be

ls -l /var/

drwxrwxr-x 18 root syslog   4096 Mar  6 14:30 log

If it doesn't look like the first starting with the drwxrwxr-x, change the permissions to the folder by typing in the following:

sudo chmod 775 /var/log

Run the cron job again.

Comments

[steeldriver]

How did you create the cron task? as a user crontab (crontab -e) or as a root crontab (sudo crontab -e)?

[user984621]

The CRON tab was created by a gem from Ruby on Rails. The Rails application use the user called deployer.

[user984621]

Hi Terrance, thank you for your message. The file is in the directory /var/log. The permissions: -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 25621 Mar 6 22:17 cron.log. I also tested cat cron.log and got this: cat: cron.log: Permission denied.

[Terrance]

Change the permissions of the file to match. There may be a change that adm is not running the cron job. sudo chmod 660 /var/log/cron.log

[Terrance]

Or just open up the file so everything can write to it. sudo chmod 666 /var/log/cron.log

[Alexander]

Or run chown <userThatRunsTheCronJob> /var/log/cron.log - e.g. chown deployer:deployer /var/log/cron.log

[user984621]

Thank you guys! Now, I can cat the file, let's see tonight if the CRON task will be proceeded.