Particular cron syntax for `*_worker_cron` causes `(<unknown>): did not find expected alphabetic or numeric character while scanning an alias at`

Some particular cron syntax gets the following error.

# /var/log/gitlab/sidekiq/current
2017-04-27_08:36:23.26949 (<unknown>): did not find expected alphabetic or numeric character while scanning an alias at line 171 column 13

As far as we know, the following tests get each result, respectively.

cron	result
0 */12 * * *	works
0 * * * *	works
* * * * *	doesn't work
*/5 * * * *	doesn't work
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * *	works

This problem seems to happen every *_worker_cron, for exmaple,

gitlab_rails['trigger_schedule_worker_cron'] = "*/5 * * * *"

Special thanks to @pnu and @phpb-com, who investigated this problem!

Sidenote

• This error was revealed at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/31274#note_28341651
• Tested with EE 9.1.0 (non-RC!) (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/31274#note_27955865)
• This problem doesn't happen on source installation & GDK (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/31274#note_28344509)

Thanks to all involved, for this detailed breakdown as well as checking against source & GDK to ensure it is a localized problem to the Omnibus GitLab.

It seems that something within the Omnibus GitLab package is having a problem with any cron string where the minute field is or contains *.

cc @gitlab-build-team

For reference sake, you can put a * in the minute field if it's not in the leading position (sounds like the parser is leading with a search for a alphanumeric value).

This runs:

gitlab_rails['trigger_schedule_worker_cron'] = "0,* * * * *"

This doesn't:

gitlab_rails['trigger_schedule_worker_cron'] = "*,0 * * * *"

So irrespective of the validity of the spec, the breaking condition seems to be a leading *... I think.

mentioned in issue #2294 (closed)

mentioned in merge request !1526 (merged)

assigned to @brodock

changed milestone to %9.1

Fixed by !1526 (merged), will be in %9.1 in a patch release

closed