Running PHP Scripts with Cron

56 Responses

• dave
  

  There is another way that seems to be independent of whether php is installed as a module or cgi…use curl or wget.

  * * * * * /usr/bin/curl -o http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/script.php

  or

  * * * * * /usr/bin/wget -q -O /dev/null http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/script.php

  Just wanted to throw that out there since it seems some jobs on certain webhosts just don’t work with either previous option.

  Reply
• PaulG
  

  @dave.

  Nice one, if like me you don’t have cgi version of PHP, or lynx installed wget does the business – thanks for throwing it out, caught with gratitude!

  Reply
• Penoblok
  

  As for me it is very unusuall to use such script

  Reply
• geetha
  

  Nice one., Yeah! This allows you to run your PHP scripts at command line similar to Perl or any other scripting language. No need to learn another scripting language such as Perl, Bash or Awk.

  Reply
• MrSato
  

  None of these work for me! :-(

  What’s up with that?

  If I bring up the “page” (php script) in my browser, from a different machine (windows) it runs and does its job. But if I try any of the 3 above methods, nothing appears to happen. No error messages, nothing.

  I’m running Ubuntu and the script was created by phpMyBackupPro.

  Reply
• Curtiss
  

  @MrSato – Is your PHP installation running as a CGI module or an apache module?

  Do you know if you have any sort of GUI front-end installed to help you manage crontabs? On my personal server, we’re running Webmin, which allows you to easily add crontabs to your server.

  Are you able to run PHP from the command-line? If so, try running your PHP script from the command-line and see if it works. If so, then the cron job should run. If not, then you’re going to need to find a different way to run the cron job.

  Reply
• Mahesh Vanneldas
  

  @MrSato – Hi
  do you the lynx installed on your server, if not then installed it

  then to run the cron tab just
  lynx -dump “http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/script.php”

  Hope this will help.

  Regards
  Mahesh Vanneldas

  Reply
  • Noel
    

    #10 solution worked perfectly for me after trying many many other methods. Although I sdidn’t use “” around the url

    Reply
• jason winley
  

  You need to add the run times at the beginning of each line e.g.

  5 * * * * wget etc…
  or
  1/ * * * wget will run every minute etc..

  Reply
• Vladimir
  

  Check also my tutorial – maybe you’ll find it useful: http://www.lampdocs.com/blog/2008/09/18/how-to-run-a-php-file-using-crontab/

  Reply
• Shiki
  

  Thanks!

  Reply
• Amit
  

  Hi
  I’m new to this “cron” thingi.
  Can you recommend where to learn more about it?

  Searching the net only confusing me more. :(

  Thanks,
  Amit.

  Reply
• Vanquish
  

  Hiya,

  is there any solution to runa .php via cron, which is NOT accessible through web?

  Cheers! :)

  Reply
• Curtiss
  

  @Vanquish – If you have access to set up actual crontabs through your server, it is absolutely possible. You can place a PHP script anywhere on the server. As long as you have the command-line interface (CLI) extension for PHP installed, you can tell the crontab to execute the PHP script.

  Reply
• Deepak
  

  @MrSato – Is your PHP installation running as a CGI module or an apache module?

  Reply
• MarcG
  

  Thanks for the advice. The Apache module command was exactly right!

  Reply
• Ellis Benus
  

  A thousand thank you’s. Great article, exactly what I was looking for to run a PHP script once a day.

  Reply
• Easy Daemons in PHP
  

  […] This class and script makes it easy to turn a one-shot php script into a daemon that runs in the background on a timer. This is good for things you want to happen infrequently. For example, your site may need to use curl to fetch several different rss feeds, combining them into one feed. You don’t want to fetch all the feeds every time someone asks for the combined one. It is better to generate the combined feed every 5 minutes or so. […]

  Reply
• Vince Cannon
  

  I need to run a cron for my auto-responder and the setting for the auto-responder are set to deliver the message every 10 minutes but when I set the cron it doesn’t seem to be working.

  This is the path /usr/bin/php -f /home/mysite/public_html/AR/admin/cron/cron.php

  This is the cron setting that was provided by the AR script and it’s supposed to run according to my settings in the AR Admin section.

  What is the purpose of the -f ?

  What would the wildcard settings be if I want the cron to run every 10 minutes?

  Reply
• gordo
  

  If none of these work for you, you can use wget
  wget –output-document=temp http://yourname.com/file.php

  wget just downloads the file. It is requesting it over http, so the webserver executes the script first (which is what you want).
  “–output-document=temp” saves the file as “temp” and overwrites the old one each time, so you don’t end up with several copies. You could also just save it to the temp directory, then it is deleted automatically.

  This does require that the script be somewhere that is accessible by the public, but it should work no matter how php is setup, and whether or not lynx is installed

  You’ll still need to setup the crontab, but using this command will work

  Reply
• Jake
  

  I’m using this

  * * * * * /usr/bin/wget -q -O /dev/null http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/script.php

  and it works fine in command line, but not when i try to use it by cron. Does anyone know whats wrong? Looks like cron never does the job..

  Reply
  • Jake
    

    I have solution.. Add one whitespace after the line in the crontab file

    Reply
• J Helper
  

  Hey Amit:

  Hoping you found the solution to your problem by now, but for other who are struggling with Cron, consider using an online cron replacement service to run your cron job PHP scripts. I personally recommend http://cronless.com because they’re reliable, easy to use, friendly and stable.

  They offer free cron jobs and site monitoring with a reasonably priced upgrade. Site monitoring too. Great service. Check them out.

  Reply
• Nitesh
  

  Iam customizing vtiger CRM. There are following users in the system based on the heirarchy:
  Technician – Territory Manager – Area Sales manager – MD

  Trouble ticket is created by Technician is assigned to Territory manager. Territory manager has 30 min to respond to the same. If he fails to, it automatically escalates to Area Sales Manager. The same time limit applies to him after which it gets escalated to the MD. the MD should be able to view all the details along with the date and time.

  a cron script that can scan all open trouble tickets should work . Based on the last-modified time and current time difference I have set the assigned_user_id to right user-id. But, it is not working. I would really appreciate your help.

  Regards,
  Nitesh

  Reply
• akou
  

  I want to create cronjobs for the 2 following files,

  include/CronStats.php
  include/AlexaThumbCronJob.php

  Plz reply if you have a idea how i can create this

  thanks a lot

  Reply
• terry
  

  @akou I use cronless.com to automate php scripts that validate links in my web directories, its been working perfectly well for the past 3 months.

  Reply
• Clark Burns
  

  @Vince Cannon

  using -f with the php command stands for file

  a quick ‘man php’ on the command line will give you lots of information ;)

  Reply
• Lukasz
  

  If your cron jobs do important stuff for your business I suggest to look for some way to monitor their work.

  There are number of monitoring tools, but if you don’t want to install and configure ‘a big ones’ you can try service called AlertGrid (http://alert-grid.com)

  You can easily integrate it with your cron jobs and receive SMS/phone/email notifications if your jobs don’t respond for some time, or respond with some errors.

  Reply
• mani
  

  please anyone reply for this..
  i have installed php in my system using windows installer for php..
  but after installing that when i run my php files in web browser it shows my coding page.. why????

  Reply
• alex
  

  hey! trying to get the cron job to work, got 2 questions :

  1. what does the * -q * do ?

  2. the line :* #!/usr/local/bin/php -q * that needs to be put in the .php script as the first line, is it before or after the <?php … cause if I put it after it becomes a comment.. so not sure..

  Let me know! thx!

  Reply
• ige
  

  i am having difficulty with running a php script at the shell prompt for testing.
  can somebody enlighten me?
  or point me to sites which explain relevant things i need to understand.
  many thanks.

  i have these :
  a) ubuntu 8.04 LTS, apache, php, mysql, bash

  b) directory: ../webroot/
  -rwxr-xr– 1 root root 6.9K 2010-12-01 18:31 yy.php

  this is a php script that reads log files at /var/www/ylogs and
  converts contents to records into a mysql table.
  i hope to run this script in cron later after a successful testing.

  c) directory: /var/www/ylogs
  -rwxrwx— 1 www-data root 185 2010-12-03 15:08 tallyA
  -rwxrwx— 1 www-data root 185 2010-12-03 15:08 tallyB
  …
  …
  -rwxrwx— 1 www-data root 185 2010-12-03 15:08 tallyZ

  d) what happens :
  when i try entering http://localhost/webroot/yy.php at the URL field in Firefox,
  the script works.

  but when i am in a bash shell prompt and i try :
  sudo -i (i enter password of the default-sudoer-user, i am given this prompt)
  root@name-of-computer :~#
  and i issue
  lynx -dump http://localhost/webroot/x.php

  it gives me this error :
  Connection to 127.0.0.1 failed, (111) Connection refused

  but when i logout from root into
  default-sudoer-user@name-of-computer :~$
  and i issue
  lynx -dump http://localhost/webroot/yy.php
  it works

  when i log as a regular user (non-sudoer)
  regular-user@name-of-computer :~$
  and i issue
  lynx -dump http://localhost/webroot/yy.php
  it also works.

  when the tally logs are owned as root:root, i get permission denied when i run the script,
  but when the tally logs are chowned as www-data:root, the script runs.

  e) some questions :
  in bash (and later cron), what user should i run the script yy.php as?
  (and also in apache/php, my understanding is it should be www-data?)

  if several computers are to submit their respective tallies
  via a cronned scp into this /var/www/ylogs directory,
  should i give these computers login access as user www-data
  so that apache/php can run the script?
  is this secure?

  i am so confused, any help will be appreciated.
  and sorry for a very long post.

  Reply
• ige
  

  sorry, my typo error in comment #32

  in d) but when i am in a bash shell prompt …
  …
  and i issue
  lynx -dump http://localhost/webroot/x.php

  should read
  lynx -dump http://localhost/webroot/yy.php

  thanks again for any leads

  Reply
• sanantone
  

  why not install php-cli?

  then write your php script with the shebang in the first line (path must be to your php executable, -q is optional now i believe)

  #!/usr/bin/php -q

  followed by typical php stuff, example

  <?php echo php_info();

  the resulting script file can be executed from the command line:
  php myphpinfoscript.php

  or if you chmod myphpinfoscript.php as executable, then simply run it as
  ./myphpinfoscript.php

  the .php is optional too

  Reply
• Randy
  

  Thanks… this was the info I needed to get my first PHP cron running.

  Reply
• Peter
  

  I was having a problem setting up a cron job, but after reading your post I was able to fix it – thank you!

  Reply
• Vebh
  

  i want to start my automatic newsletter section through in queue sending, right now i am with proper setting from Magento panel for my site, please suggest me a best solution for newsletter queue.

  Reply
• Stefano
  

  I have php as apache module, lynx is not possible install.
  with wget not successful operation. with curl not successful operation

  my script php content:

  ThisPath = realpath( dirname(__FILE__) ); 
  include($ThisPath.'/../config_db.php');
  /** link al db */
  $link = mysql_connect($DB_host,$DB_login,$DB_password);
  if (!$link) {
      die("\r \n Impossibile connettersi: ".mysql_error());
  } else {
      echo "\r \n Connesione eseguita a: ".$DB_host;
  }
  /** Select DB */
  $db_selected = mysql_select_db($Application["dati"], $link);
  if (!$db_selected) {
      die ("\r \n Impossibile utilizzare: ".mysql_error());
  } else {
      echo "\r \n Selezione del DB: ";    
  }
  $backupFile= $ThisPath.'/'.$Application["dati"] . date("Y-m-d-H-i-s") . '.gz';
  echo $Application["dati"];
  $command='mysqldump --opt -h '.$DB_host.' -u'.$DB_login.' --password='.$DB_password.' -A | gzip > '.$backupFile;
  echo $command;
  system($command);
  
  string $command result:
  mysqldump --opt -h 127.0.0.1 -u root --password=password -A | gzip > /var/www/BK_db/db2011-02-02-13-15-36.gz
  

  why?

  Reply
• Fullia
  

  I use Dashboard, but this code does not work. What could be the reason?

  php -q /domains/sitename.com/public_html/phpfilename.php

  Reply
• doyanet
  

  Hi,

  I am going to run crontab job on php by using GET parameter. Does it work?.

  for e.g:
  1 * * * * c:\php.exe c:\test.php?action=fruits

  I tested and failed. Is there any way to run php file but using GET paramenter as I described above?.

  So, if it could works, will be easier for me to maintain function/ code only in a single php file.

  Thanks.
  Doya.

  Reply
• Todor Pavlov
  

  The best solution for me is to create only one cron job which runs every minute:
  * * * * * php /path/to/your/cron.php

  and then to make web interface to execute as many scripts as you want in what time you want. The names of the scripts and the time for execution can be written in the database and executed with system() php function

  Reply
• cb.ikt
  

  One thing to add: keep your php-output to a minimum. any output of a script run by a cronjob will be reported to the user. So set the error_reporting() to an appropiate level and remove all the echos if you don’t need the output.

  Reply
• Cardil
  

  We recently prepared a mini project (PHP>=5.3) to manage the cron files for private and individual tasks. This tool connects and manages the cron files so you can use them, for example per project. Unittests avialable :-)

  Sample from command line:

  bin/cronman –enable /var/www/myproject/.cronfile –user www-data

  Sample from API:

  use php\manager\crontab\CrontabManager;

  $crontab = new CrontabManager();
  $crontab->enableOrUpdate(‘/tmp/my/crontab.txt’);
  $crontab->save();

  Managing individual tasks from API:

  use php\manager\crontab\CrontabManager;

  $crontab = new CrontabManager();
  $job = $crontab->newJob();
  $job->on(‘* * * * *’);
  $job->onMinute(’20-30′)->doJob(“echo foo”);
  $crontab->add($job);
  $job->onMinute(’35-40′)->doJob(“echo bar”);
  $crontab->add($job);
  $crontab->save();

  github: https://github.com/MediovskiTechnology/php-crontab-manager

  Reply
  • ProDeveloper
    

    Thanks for posting Cardil, nice project!

    Reply
• java
  

  how to make cron setup for schedule back up in cpanel?

  Reply
• jason
  

  Hi, thank you for the insight.
  Just so I am clear, in the method you describe above, are we simply using CRON to call the php script via browser (WGET or Lynx as you mention)?

  In other words, is CRON calling the php script directly from the Linux shell or is it actually calling upon a browser to call the script just as a human might if they opened a browser to the php script URL every 5 minutes or whatever?

  If I am correct, can I assume then that theoretically the php script and the CRON job could actually live on two separate machines? Further, if I am understanding correctly, is there any downside to calling the script via WGET as opposed to directly from the shell (if that is possible… I’m kinda of a Linux novice)

  Thank you very much! J

  Reply
  • ProDeveloper
    

    Right, if you are using the option where cron is running Lynx, wget or curl, cron is executing these tools and pointing them to your php file on the web server. Lynx is a browser, wget or curl are command line tools but in this case the result is the same.

    Web server (which servers your php file) can be running on the same server as cron or can be completely remote.

    As for downsides. The only downside I see is that this php script is exposed to the public and this means that everyone can access it from any web browser. So theoretically someone can be continuously running your cron script without you having control over this process.

    As a solution to this you could add some security in your cron.php file to only if requested form specific IP address etc.

    Reply
• pramod
  

  I have set sh on crontab When it’s running it will take by default 3 red line which I have set on sh file.

  Below these format i have put on crontab

  /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/metro/script.php
  /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/metro/header.php

  sh /var/www/html/test.sh

  is it correct can u pls tell me

  Reply
• Jason U.
  

  Not sure why you would need to use an independent browser. You could just ssh into your server, open the file using nano, save, and your done. No more extra steps.

  Reply
  • ProDeveloper
    

    Well, the idea here is that one can run any PHP scripts by Cron on any independent box. In order for PHP script to be processed you just point browser or curl to that PHP file.

    Reply
• Salome
  

  I found something that looks like a good useful – easycron.com which will load a specific URL at a given time.

  Reply
• Fully Help
  

  Thanks for sharing your information article i love to read the A php tutorials that covers all the basics of php.

  Reply
• Backler
  

  Thanks for the article. I use a cron service called easycron.com to trigger the php script to run.

  Reply
  • ProDeveloper
    

    its a nice service, and it has a free account to try. but you have to pay for any reasonable use.
    the approach we are discussing in this post allows you to reduce this cost

    Reply
• meigie
  

  how about crontab in windows?

  Reply
  • ProDeveloper
    

    Unfortunately not so straight forward like on Linux. Check PowerShell

    Reply
• Siva Shankar
  

  how to retrieve this?

  System should have a functional web-based front-end.
  It should list all the cron jobs on the server or have the ability to configure jobs individually.
  It should be able to detect success and failure of jobs based on exit codes of scripts.
  Provide ability to look at scripts outputs (stdout/stderr).

  Reply