How to stop ec2 with crontab at @reboot?

Question

I am using crontab on a Linux ec2 to run some code when the instance starts. The first two lines of the crontab run correctly, but I cannot make the instance stop after 120 seconds.

@reboot python3 run.py
@reboot python3 run2.py
@reboot sleep 120 aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-059............

If I run the was command in the terminal works without issues, is only in crontab that does not work.

Answer 1

This is a complete command:

sleep 120

This is another complete command:

aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-059

You can't just smash multiple commands together like you are attempting. If you tried running sleep 120 aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-059 you would see an error message. That error message is also probably showing up in your server's cron log.

The solution is to place a semicolon delimiter between the commands, like so:

sleep 120 ; aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-059

This tells the Linux shell to run the first command and wait for it to finish, then run the second command.