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up vote 4 down vote favorite

I have a shell script that accepts an argument and uses that in the script. So to run the script I type /path/to/script argument

The problem is when trying to setup that file to run using the at utility. I have tried

at -f /path/to/script argument 17:45

at -f '/path/to/script argument' 17:45

but neither of these options work. First one receives a syntax error and the second says no such file Any suggestions?

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Just put /path/to/script argument in another script, and call that script instead. –  warl0ck Oct 25 '12 at 0:57
1  
That pretty much defeats the purpose of having arguments in the shell script. Thanks though! –  Elmer Oct 25 '12 at 14:46
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Since at defaults to reading from standard input, you can just do this:

echo /path/to/script argument | at 17:45
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up vote 1 down vote

I would recommend following the advice of @warl0ck in the general case -- create a new script, e.g. /path/to/newscript:

 #!/bin/bash
 /path/to/script argument

and then run that using at:

 at -f /path/to/newscript 17:45

This makes it easy to adjust whatever arguments are needed, run multiple commands, etc.

Alternatively, for occasional or one-off use, you can just run at with the chosen time, and then enter whatever command(s) you need on standard input; hit ctrl-D to end:

 myhost# at 17:45
 /path/to/script argument
 <ctrl-D>
 Job 1 will be executed using /bin/sh
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