I have successfully run a simple cronR tutorial using the cronR add in within R Studio. Here is the following code that I have saved in a R script file:
library(glue)
current_time <- Sys.time()
print(current_time)
msg <- glue::glue("This is a test I am running at {current_time}.")
cat(msg, file = "test.txt")
The R script file is saved within a specific project directory. The log file when the job runs is also saved there. However, the output of the script file, test.txt, is saved in my home directory. I am on a Mac. In the tutorial, it was stated that this would happen, that cron would save any output in the home directory and that if I want to change the location that I have to "specify otherwise". However, the tutorial gives no instructions for how to do this and I am not sure if I am supposed to do this through the terminal in mac and if so how? Changing the file path in the script file (e.g. Documents/test.txt) changes nothing, as the test.txt file is still saved in the home drive. I suspect I have to make this change somewhere else but I am not sure where. Any help would be appreciated.
For anyone who runs into the same issue, I was able to solve my problem by using launchD. I followed this tutorial https://babichmorrowc.github.io/post/launchd-jobs/. It worked as anticipated and now my .txt file is saved to the correct place. There is also a tutorial there for cron jobs, though if you are on a mac, launchD is apparently the preferred method.