[fastforward]

Originally posted by chrispadfield
I am so nearly there

last thing. What would be the code i need to get this to run via cron but to create a log file of the output of the shell script (so i can check it is running properly).

i can work out the cron time bit but do i just add > /path/to/log.txt sort of thing?

To generate a log from your cron job use something like this:

0 0,4,8,12,16,20 * * * nice -20 /home/dbforums/newnews.pl >/var/log/misc/newnews.log 2>&1

If you want the output emailed to you, just leave the redirection bits off completely. The output will be mailed to the owner of the cron job.