Problem running Django crontab in Docker container

I'm trying to create a simple cron, in my django application, but despite adding and launching correctly, the cron doesn't execute, nor does it save logs

settings.py


INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django_crontab',
]

CRONJOBS = [
    ('*/1 * * * *', 'myapp.cron.test_func', '>> /var/log/cron.log 2>&1'),
]

Dockerfile

python:3.12
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1

WORKDIR /app

COPY requirements.txt .

RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip
RUN pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y cron && \
    apt-get clean

RUN touch /var/log/cron.log

docker-entrypoint.sh


python3 manage.py crontab add
service cron start

exec "$@"

When the container is launched, the commands return these results:

crontab -l

*/1 * * * * /usr/local/bin/python3 /app/manage.py crontab run <cron_id> >> /var/log/cron.log 2>&1 # django-cronjobs for my_project

python3 manage.py crontab show

<cron_id> -> ('*/1 * * * *', 'myapp.cron.test_func', '>> /var/log/cron.log 2>&1')

service cron status

cron is running.

Manually running cron with the command “python3 manage.py crontab run <cron_id>” works fine, the logs are empty.

the django-crontab project last update was in 2016.. over 8 years ago. It's probably a dead project.

I'd recommend to implement a custom django admin command and register it with crontab the old fashioned way (crontab -e).

in a bash file, setup your virtual environment then call the custom admin script similar to below python manage.py <script_name> --settings=<django_app>.settings

schedule the script to run in cron (e.g.): 30 * * * * <path_to_script>/<script_name>.sh

if adding your bash file to git, make sure you set your .sh file to maintain execute. for example, C:\Temp\TestRepo>git update-index --chmod=+x foo.sh

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