Cron Job Silent Failure Detection: Catch Failures Without Logs
Your cron job fails silently—no error logs, no exit codes, no notifications. Learn how to detect these silent failures automatically.
What Are Silent Failures
Silent failures occur when cron jobs fail but don't produce any indication:
- Script exits with code 0 but doesn't perform work
- Errors are caught but not logged
- Cron daemon stops, so jobs never execute
- Script hangs without producing output
- Permission errors prevent execution silently
- Environment issues cause silent failures
Traditional monitoring relies on logs and exit codes, which silent failures don't provide.
Detection Method: Explicit Success Confirmation
The only reliable way to detect silent failures is explicit success confirmation. Your script must send a ping when it completes successfully. If the ping doesn't arrive, you know the job failed silently.
Bash Example: Always Ping on Success
#!/bin/bashset -eset -o pipefail# Your work./process.sh# Single ping at end - if job fails, ping won't arrive and DeadManPing will alertcurl -X POST "https://deadmanping.com/api/ping/job-daily"Python Example: Try-Finally Pattern
import requestsimport sys# Your workperform_work()# Single ping at end - if job fails, ping won't arrive and DeadManPing will alertrequests.post("https://deadmanping.com/api/ping/job-daily")Dead Man Switch Detection
A dead man switch detects silent failures by monitoring whether your explicit success ping arrives. If the ping doesn't arrive within the expected interval, you know the job failed silently—regardless of logs or exit codes.
This works for all types of silent failures: script crashes, cron daemon stops, permission errors, missing environment variables, and more.
Working Examples
See complete, working code examples in our GitHub repository:
View Examples on GitHub →Start Detecting Silent Failures
DeadManPing monitors whether your explicit success pings arrive. Set up monitoring in 2 minutes, get alerts when jobs fail silently.
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