Error during execution of scripts in Darwin machine

Question

I'm getting the following error on a Darwin machine:

awk: cannot execute [Interrupted system call]

This is the OS version:

Darwin ...... 9.8.0 Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:57:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh

Do you know what it might be?

Answer 1

The error message is giving you a clue. Somewhere a system call is being made by awk which is not working and the calling script is consequently being "interrupted". You'll need to narrow down the scope of the question by finding which cron scripts are failing with this error. Use grep to look through your cron scripts for suspects.

From the information you've provided I'd guess that a script that uses awk is making a system call (the code will be system(some_shell_cmd) ) to a utility that doesn't exist; is installed in an unusual location; is not on your $PATH; is not executable; or is itself a perl, python, or sh ($SHELL) script for which the interpreter has either not been installed or is not functioning properly.