Using WGET to run a cronjob PHP

Question

I tried to do a cron and run a url every 5 mintues.

I tried to use WGET however I dont want to download the files on the server, all I want is just to run it.

This is what I used (crontab):

*/5 * * * * wget http://www.example.com/cronit.php

Is there any other command to use other than wget to just run the url and not downlaod it?

Probably too late, but you could use curl, the default operation mode doesn't download, but is not always present on the servers. — Matteo, Feb 07 '13 at 15:53
Yeah, curl definitely seems like a better solution than using wget. — Matthew G, May 11 '13 at 13:39

score 108 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '11 at 20:40

108

You could tell wget to not download the contents in a couple of different ways:

wget --spider http://www.example.com/cronit.php

which will just perform a HEAD request but probably do what you want

wget -O /dev/null http://www.example.com/cronit.php

which will save the output to /dev/null (a black hole)

You might want to look at wget's -q switch too which prevents it from creating output

I think that the best option would probably be:

wget -q --spider http://www.example.com/cronit.php

that's unless you have some special logic checking the HTTP method used to request the page

answered Apr 23 '11 at 20:40

James C

7

`wget --quiet --spider --timeout=0 --tries=1 "http://www.example.com/cronit.php"` - this is what I'm using to "ping" a long running php script... *disclaimer* I don't have much experience with `wget` or `crontab` so read the [manual](http://linux.die.net/man/1/wget) and test the solution in your own environment. – Chris Jacob Dec 07 '11 at 00:39
I found that if I use the `-q` option, the script (on my server) is not executed, so I leave that out. When I run the script in the terminal, I see output, but does that result in problems when it's run in a cronjob? I guess not, but I may be wrong. – SPRBRN Oct 14 '13 at 07:49

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 23 '11 at 20:41

19

wget -O- http://www.example.com/cronit.php >> /dev/null

This means send the file to stdout, and send stdout to /dev/null

answered Apr 23 '11 at 20:41

Emil Vikström

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 17 '15 at 05:56

5

I tried following format, working fine

*/5 * * * * wget --quiet -O /dev/null http://localhost/cron.php

answered Nov 17 '15 at 05:56

Mosiur

Works for me, too, but a bit confused how `--quiet` and `-O` co-exist. – Robert Andrews Jan 14 '19 at 22:43

angelrove · Answer 4 · 2023-01-03T10:59:39.040

4

If you want get output only when php fail:

*/5 * * * * php -r 'echo file_get_contents(http://www.example.com/cronit.php);'

Or more secure:

*/5 * * * * php /var/www/example/cronit.php

This way you receive an email from cronjob only when the script fails and not whenever the php is called.

edited Jan 03 '23 at 10:59

answered Feb 05 '17 at 10:12

angelrove

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 21 '21 at 11:54

1

you can just use this code to hit the script using cron job using cpanel:

wget https://www.example.co.uk/unique-code

answered Jan 21 '21 at 11:54

Hammad Ahmed khan

5 Answers5