Long ago I used to use the at command quite often in a Unix environment. I would just use the following syntax:

# at now /path/scriptname

And it worked.

Now, in Ubuntu, when I use the same syntax, I get the following:

syntax error. Last token seen: /
Garbled time

The solution is to enter “at now” and hit enter. At the at> prompt, enter the full path and name of the script you want to run. Then, hit Ctrl-D to run the job and exit out of at.

# at now
warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
at> /path/scriptname
at>
job 7 at Thu Oct 30 11:30:00 2014