Using CronTab to run php scripts

Question

I need to send emails hourly and daily. I've tried nearly everything but it appears my crontab just won't work. If I run the scripts via a browser e.g

http://localhost/Maisha/Functions/sendhourlymails.php

my emails get sent beautifully.(I moved default website localhost to public_html.) I don't know whats wrong. I read some post in stack overflow including the executable path of php helps hence I've put the /usr/bin/php before the actual script to be cronned will work but it does not. Removing /usr/bin/php does not work. Adding php before the actual script isn't working. I have the following entries in my crontab.

# m h  dom mon dow   command
0  *  *   *   *    /usr/bin/php /home/maxwell/public_html/Maisha/Functions/sendhourlymails.php
0  0  *   *   *    /usr/bin/php /home/maxwell/public_html/Maisha/Functions/senddailymails.php

What happens if you run the command directly on the command line? — Alister Bulman, Feb 27 '11 at 15:36
What happens when you run the commands manually on the command line? — Explosion Pills, Feb 27 '11 at 15:36
@Alister how do I do that? I'm a Newbie in linux environment — MaxI, Feb 27 '11 at 17:19

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 27 '11 at 15:48

6

Try to call the script via http with wget like so:

* * * * * wget http://mysite.com/myscript >/dev/null 2>&1

answered Feb 27 '11 at 15:48

markus

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Do I put that in my crontab entries or wget is different? – MaxI Feb 27 '11 at 17:28
wget is a unix utility like any other and cron executes whatever command (with limitations) you want. – markus Feb 27 '11 at 20:22
By the way it is best if this is done as su i.e create this cron as super user. – MaxI Mar 03 '11 at 18:28

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 27 '11 at 16:21

0

Yeh, wget is good option, also you can try to use:

0 * * * * /usr/sbin/php /usr/bin/php /home/maxwell/public_html/Maisha/Functions/sendhourlymails.php

but it could work wrong due to relative paths.

Also you should look at http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.php

answered Feb 27 '11 at 16:21

Ivan

1

usr/sbin/php does not exist for my case. – MaxI Feb 27 '11 at 17:23

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 19 '12 at 07:04

Try to put this into your .php file

<?php
    #!/usr/local/bin/php -q
//your code here
?>

Then if you include any file into this file you must use something like:

include"/var/www/../your_absolute_path_from_root_folder/connect.php";

Finnaly make sure this file has the right permissions..Try

chmod 755 /var/www/.../file.php

Then if you edit your crontab file with the following command

vi /etc/crontab

put something like

10 6 * * * root php /var/www/..path../file.php

and restart the service with this command

/etc/init.d/cron restart

you have do your job!!

Note-Tip:the php file isn't neccessery to be into public_html folder!!

Using CronTab to run php scripts

3 Answers3

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