php 'glob()' not working from crontab

Question

I've written some simple PHP code to backup files daily, but while it works perfectly from the command line every time, I can't get it to work from within cron.

I've followed the troubleshooting steps suggested in: Why is crontab not executing my PHP script? But this seems to deal with a more general case where PHP won't run at all. Having put debug messages into my php code so I can see that it runs fine from the command line, but $files = glob("*.mp4"); is getting no results when run from cron.

My crontab line is as below (added via sudo crontab -e):

00 8 * * * timeout 23h /mnt/usbdrive/CCTV/192.168.0.24/webdav/sdcard/alarm/mvfiles.php

Please ignore the "ip address" in the above, it's just a folder name created by an old wget command.

My php is below:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
$files = glob("*.mp4");
$movedFiles = 0;
$stringFiles = "";
foreach($files as $file) {

  $year = substr($file,3,4);

  $month = substr($file,7,2);

  $day = substr($file,9,2);

  $stringFiles .= "\n".$file .";";

/*
  echo($file."\n");
  echo($year."\n");
  echo($month."\n");
  echo($day."\n");
*/

  if (!file_exists("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year)) {
    mkdir("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year);

  }
  if(!file_exists("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year . '/' . $month)){
    mkdir("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year . '/' . $month);

  }

  if(!file_exists("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year . '/' . $month . '/' . $day)){
    mkdir("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year . '/' . $month . '/' . $day );

  }
  if(!file_exists("/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year . '/' . $month . '/' . $day .'/'.$file)){
    copy("/mnt/usbdrive/CCTV/192.168.0.24/webdav/sdcard/alarm/".$file, "/mnt/usbdrive/alarmBackup/" . $year . '/' . $month . '/' . $day .'/'.$file);
    $movedFiles += filesize('/mnt/usbdrive/CCTV/192.168.0.24/webdav/sdcard/alarm/'.$file);
    echo("copied ".$file."; total moved so far ".human_filesize($movedFiles) . "\n");
  }

}
echo("lastly, ".human_filesize($movedFiles)."\n");
if(mail('me@hotmail.com','CCTV Archive Results','Hi Martin, today '.human_filesize($movedFiles).' of data were copied to the archive. \n The following files were checked:' . $stringFiles)){
    echo("Mail Sent\n");
  } else {
    echo("Mail Not Sent\n");
}

function human_filesize($bytes, $decimals = 2) {
    $size = array('B','kB','MB','GB','TB','PB','EB','ZB','YB');
    $factor = floor((strlen($bytes) - 1) / 3);
    return sprintf("%.{$decimals}f", $bytes / pow(1024, $factor)) . @$size[$factor];
}
?>

When run from the command line (using sudo mvfiles.php)I get a long list of files in my email inbox (as I'd expect) and when run from cron I just get a mail saying:

 Hi Martin, today 0.00B of data were copied to the archive. \n The following files were checked:

Identify the current working directory for the cron task ([getcwd()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.getcwd.php)), and change it ([chdir()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.chdir.php)) to the appropriate directory if it isn't where your files are stored — Mark Baker, Jan 03 '18 at 16:13
Thanks, worked perfectly - if you want to format it as an answer then I can accept it. — Martin KS, Jan 03 '18 at 16:26

php 'glob()' not working from crontab

0 Answers0