Web2py - Cron task debug - module

Question

I recently updated to the newest version of web2py (v2.1.1) but even in the previous version I was still experiencing this issue.
I want to run a cron job. In my efforts to just get the cron working I have followed this tutorial. Something really simple to see it working. But I must have done something wrong as I am not sure even this is working.
Below is my terminal once I start web2py. There are 3 modules I would like to run every minute. The last module is from the aforementioned tutorial. I have also followed the tutorials' logging.conf so that output is reflected below:
2012-10-18 16:50:00,060 - web2py.cron - DEBUG - hard cron invocation
2012-10-18 16:50:00,060 - web2py.cron - DEBUG - WEB2PY CRON: Acquiring lock
2012-10-18 16:50:00,061 - web2py.cron - INFO - WEB2PY CRON (hard): ircmessage executing *applications/ircmessage/modules/get_messages.py in /home/web2py/src/web2py at 2012-10-18 16:50:00.061575
2012-10-18 16:50:00,062 - web2py.cron - INFO - WEB2PY CRON (hard): ircmessage executing **applications/ircmessage/modules/addline.py in /home/web2py/src/web2py at 2012-10-18 16:50:00.062092
2012-10-18 16:50:00,065 - web2py.cron - INFO - WEB2PY CRON (hard): ircmessage executing **applications/ircmessage/modules/background_updater.py in /home/web2py/src/web2py at 2012-10-18 16:50:00.065794
2012-10-18 16:50:00,069 - web2py.cron - DEBUG - WEB2PY CRON: Releasing cron lock
2012-10-18 16:50:00,934 - web2py.cron - DEBUG - WEB2PY CRON Call returned success:
>>>
2012-10-18 16:50:00,938 - web2py.cron - DEBUG - WEB2PY CRON Call returned success:
>>>
2012-10-18 16:50:00,963 - web2py.cron - DEBUG - WEB2PY CRON Call returned success:
Here is my crontab:
#crontab
0-59/1 * * * * root *applications/ircmessage/modules/get_messages.py
0-59/1 * * * * root **applications/ircmessage/modules/addline.py
0-59/1 * * * * root **applications/ircmessage/modules/background_updater.py
A quick look at the simple addline.py module:
#!/usr/bin/env python
# coding: utf8
from gluon import *
from gluon.debug import dbg
with open("text.txt", "a") as myfile:
myfile.write("appended text")
dbg.set_trace() # stop here! **
** Notice that I used the dbg.set_trace -- This trace doesn't not appear in the debug section in the admin.
Since updating to the new version of web2py I noticed that cron tasks are not ran on startup automatically (I may have misinterpreted this however?). I start web2py like this:
./web2py.py -i xxx.xxx.xx.xx -p 8000 -c /etc/ssl/certs/my_cert_file.crt -k /etc/ssl/certs/my_cert_key.key -a apassword --run-cron
Any advice on how to get the simplest of cron tasks working would be greatly appreciated. Also advice on how I might go about debugging whether the cron is actually being invoked would be welcomed. Actually, advice in general would be very beneficial.
Thank you for your time and suggestions in advance.

Answer 1

Since web2py 2.1.1 cron is disabled by default (because we want to encourage use of the scheduler). You need the -Y option to enable it.