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    When running on an AWS Linux AMI, it didn't even occur to me that cron wouldn't be using /bin/bash as the shell. I kept wondering why things like cd /path/to/project; source .vars would work when I typed them manually but would fail (File not found) when included in a cronjob. The key line for me was setting SHELL=/bin/bash so that I could actually use familiar bash commands in each cronjob. /bin/sh/ (the default cron shell, apparently) is very limiting. Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 14:05
  • It's too bad you can't specify Environment Files at the top of the cron like you can specify individual environment variables. Systemd has a EnvironmentFile service unit. Too bad cron doesn't have something similar. Commented Jan 30, 2018 at 20:19
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    If $SHELL is /bin/sh, the source command does not exist. Use . instead. Commented Jan 25, 2019 at 21:35
  • The solution is not working for SunOS 5.9. The following error is displayed: SHELL=/bin/bash crontab: error on previous line; unexpected character found in line. crontab: errors detected in input, no crontab file generated Commented Jun 19, 2019 at 12:54
  • Hmm... I haven't used Sun in years but maybe their version of crontab doesn't support setting a default shell. In your case I would then have something along the lines of */1 * * * * /bin/bash $HOME/cron_job.sh. Commented Jun 20, 2019 at 2:21