Executing a PHP script with a CRON Job

Question

I would like to run a PHP script every day at midnight. After research on how to do this, it appears that the best way to achieve this is to use a CRON job.

If my php script was located at http://example.com/scripts/scriptExample.php, can somebody be able to show the most simple example of what this CRON command would look like?

I have looked through numerous posts but I cannot find a simple enough example for me to learn and build upon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron `0 0 * * * /path/to/php /path/to/phpscript` 0min 0hour every day month year. php with full path on local server, php script with full path. OR `0 0 * * * wget http://example.com/scripts/scriptExample.php` — Waygood, Apr 22 '13 at 10:11

score 24 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 22 '13 at 10:11

24

Crontab needs the full path on your server.

0 0 * * * php /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/httpdocs/scripts/example.php

This will execute every day at midnight.

answered Apr 22 '13 at 10:11

karmafunk

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This is great. I will try this command out once the script has been finished. Thank you for your help! – djnetherton Apr 22 '13 at 10:16
This code is not working with me! – moderns Apr 07 '14 at 00:32
And because that the easy way it's requesting the "page" via wget or lynx in this way: http://hardforo.com/thread-460-post-1234.html – boctulus May 21 '16 at 13:55
yeah this work for me – Sigit Purnomo Sep 16 '17 at 15:23

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 22 '13 at 10:11

So something like this:

00 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php /home/john/myscript.php

The 00 * * * * means hourly /usr/local/bin/php - where php main engine is in /home/john/myscript.php - the script to run (physical path)

You can use also @hourly special key:

@hourly /usr/local/bin/php /home/john/myscript.php

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 22 '13 at 10:14

2

If You have a sudo access to your linux server :- Then do the following

sudo crontab -e

This will open the cron tab for you on your server.

Next thing is you have to do a cron entry for the file which you want to execute

00 00 * * * /usr/local/bin/php "path of the php file which you want to execute"

00 00 * * * this will run your cron at midnight daily, means at 0hrs and 0mins

answered Apr 22 '13 at 10:14

Nishant

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As both are 0. Its 0 mins, 0 hours to be precise, the order is: MINS HOURS DAYOFMONTH MONTH DAYOFWEEK #command# – Waygood Apr 22 '13 at 10:19

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 22 '13 at 10:24

0

Are you using a company to host your website?

As you should have a icon in your c panel called cron jobs from there you can tell it what script to execute and when.

edited Apr 22 '13 at 10:24

Smita

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answered Apr 22 '13 at 10:06

Chris par

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I am yes. That sounds promising Chris. I will take a look. – djnetherton Apr 22 '13 at 10:08
My cPanel does have this Chris which is great. However the actual command I need to provide is what I need help with now. An example of what this command looks like would be great! – djnetherton Apr 22 '13 at 10:10
Ok the command line would look something like this. usr/bin/php -q – Chris par Apr 22 '13 at 10:15
Home/username/public_html/yourfilename.php – Chris par Apr 22 '13 at 10:17
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OR `wget http://example.com/scripts/scriptExample.php` – Waygood Apr 22 '13 at 10:21

Executing a PHP script with a CRON Job

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