Anacron doesn't run jobs

[aecordoba1]

I have a script (backup.sh) to backup some files:

#!/bin/sh
LOGFILE="/home/adrian/scripts/backup/backup.log"

echo "*********************************************" >> "$LOGFILE"
echo "** Backup: "$(date)" **" >> "$LOGFILE"
echo "*********************************************" >> "$LOGFILE"

echo "*** work: Documents ***" >> "$LOGFILE"
rsync -r -t -v --progress --delete -s /work/Documents /backup/Backup/work >> "$LOGFILE" 2>&1


echo "*** work: Configurations ***" >> "$LOGFILE"
rsync -r -t -v --progress --delete -s /work/Configurations /backup/Backup/work >> "$LOGFILE" 2>&1

echo "*** work: Development ***" >> "$LOGFILE"
rsync -r -t -v --progress --delete -s /work/Development /backup/Backup/work >> "$LOGFILE" 2>&1

echo "*** openSuse: backup script ***" >> "$LOGFILE"
rsync -r -t -v --progress -s /home/adrian/scripts/backup/backup.sh /backup/Backup/ >> "$LOGFILE" 2>&1

echo "*** Backup finished at $(date) with exit code $? ***" >> "$LOGFILE"

This file is in /etc/cron.weekly:

adrian@stroustrup:/etc/cron.weekly> ls -l
total 4
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 902 Jul 10 18:42 backup.sh

The anacron configuration file is:

# /etc/anacrontab: configuration file for anacron

# See anacron(8) and anacrontab(5) for details.

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
# the maximal random delay added to the base delay of the jobs
RANDOM_DELAY=45
# the jobs will be started during the following hours only
START_HOURS_RANGE=3-22

#period in days   delay in minutes   job-identifier   command
1	5	cron.daily		nice run-parts /etc/cron.daily
7	25	cron.weekly		nice run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
@monthly 45	cron.monthly		nice run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

The status of cron is:

adrian@stroustrup:~> sudo systemctl status cron
● cron.service - Command Scheduler
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cron.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2026-07-10 12:21:36 -03; 7h ago
 Invocation: 73af714c9b094706bb01fd3609f008bc
   Main PID: 1564 (cron)
      Tasks: 1
        CPU: 165ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/cron.service
             └─1564 /usr/sbin/cron -n

Jul 10 13:36:00 stroustrup anacron[7502]: Job `cron.daily' started
Jul 10 13:36:00 stroustrup anacron[7502]: Job `cron.daily' terminated
Jul 10 13:56:00 stroustrup anacron[7502]: Job `cron.weekly' started
Jul 10 13:56:00 stroustrup anacron[7502]: Job `cron.weekly' terminated
Jul 10 13:56:00 stroustrup anacron[7502]: Normal exit (2 jobs run)
Jul 10 16:00:00 stroustrup CRON[14403]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jul 10 16:00:00 stroustrup CRON[14402]: (root) CMDEND (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jul 10 17:00:00 stroustrup CRON[18455]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jul 10 18:00:00 stroustrup CRON[25928]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
Jul 10 19:00:00 stroustrup CRON[28084]: (root) CMD (run-parts /etc/cron.hourly)
adrian@stroustrup:~> 

But, the script doesn’t run!
If I force anacron:

adrian@stroustrup:~> sudo anacron -f -d cron.weekly
[sudo] password for adrian: 
Anacron started on 2026-07-10
Will run job `cron.weekly' in 44 min.
Job `cron.weekly' started
Job `cron.weekly' terminated
Normal exit (1 job run)

but the script is not executed.
(The script is working: If I run it manually, it works!)
Do you hava any idea?
Thank you, in advance!

[hendersj]

I’d have a look at the output of sudo journalctl -xeu cron and see what that shows.

There is some documentation that suggests that names with dots in them are not run by run-parts, so you might try naming the file just backup and see if that does the trick. The run-parts manpage says in part:

If neither the --lsbsysinit option nor the --regex option is given then the names must consist entirely of ASCII upper- and lower-case letters, ASCII digits, ASCII underscores, and ASCII minus-hyphens.

So this seems like it might be the problem.

[aecordoba1]

Thank you, hendersj!
You are right: I renamed the script from backup.sh to backup, and now anacron runs the job normally.