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Following the upgrade of a server machine to Ubuntu 16.04, all python programs started by cron fail upon the 'import pyodbc' statement. I installed that package normally via 

pip3 install pyodbc

If I create a simple program containgin just the instruction 'import pyodbc', it works if i run it from the command line:

$ python3 /home/test.py
$

I instructed the same program to be run from cron (here is the relevant part of crontab):

$ crontab –l
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 8,10,12-18 * * * python3 /home/test.py 1>>/var/log/python3.log

Then, in the log file, I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/test.py", line 1, in <module>
    import pyodbc
ImportError: No module named 'pyodbc'

The result is the same if I run from the 'main' cron or from a user crontab'. What can I do to solve the problem?

Marc Vanhoomissen
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  • what lies in /home/test.py > – Raja G Aug 24 '16 at 10:45
  • As described, a single line import pyodbc. I edited the question to make it more visible. – Marc Vanhoomissen Aug 24 '16 at 11:05
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    Just a hunch (am on mobile atm), but cron runs with a limited set of env variables. Possibly python path is different. I believe if you set the abs path to the module, it should work. – Jacob Vlijm Aug 24 '16 at 11:16
  • @Jacob: There surely lies something in what you write: looking for the exact location of pyodbc, I found it under python3.4 but when i start python3, I end up in python 3.5. Is there a way to specify that i want to install module pyodbc for python 3.5? Or is it better to eliminate (how?) python 3.4? – Marc Vanhoomissen Aug 24 '16 at 12:04
  • Isn't it possible to just add the path (in the script) to the module, like: http://askubuntu.com/a/471168/72216 – Jacob Vlijm Aug 24 '16 at 12:17
  • Thank you for your help, it put me on the right track. I could finally solve the problem. Remains the question of installation (see my answer). – Marc Vanhoomissen Aug 24 '16 at 13:57

2 Answers2

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OK, thanks to the suggestion of Jacob Vlijm, I finally found out the solution: the package 'pyodbc' had been installed under user1 (/home/user1/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/). As I logged in as user1 in my terminal, the program could find the module. Using cron, I usually run the programs under another user (user2).

That was the problem. Running in cron via user1, everything was OK. The last question I will investigate is why the command 'pip3 install pyodbc==3.0.10' made the package available to user1 and not to all users.

Marc Vanhoomissen
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  • Because pip3 install by default only installs locally for the user invoking the command, which is user1 in this case. – edwinksl Aug 24 '16 at 14:56
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    You could install it for all users by getting it from the official Ubuntu repositories: sudo apt install python3-pyodbc – edwinksl Aug 24 '16 at 15:00
  • ...I nevere pip. – Jacob Vlijm Aug 24 '16 at 15:21
  • @edwinksl: thanks. I have then incorrectly interpreted the official documentation of python (https://packaging.python.org/installing/#use-pip-for-installing) specifying how to install just for one user. I derived from it that if I do not use the flag '--user', the installation is for everybody. – Marc Vanhoomissen Aug 24 '16 at 15:27
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Alright , make your program like this

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import pyodbc

Give executable permissions like 

chmod +x filename.py

and now add it cron and lets see.

Raja G
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