Run a PHP file in a cron job using CPanel

Question

I am just trying to run a PHP script using a cron job within CPanel - is this the correct syntax:

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php >/dev/null

I am not getting any email notifications stating a cron has been completed, do I need to do anything specific with the PHP file?

I think it is quite relevant seeing as many projects are hosted on Cpanel, and one would need to know how to run cron jobs if need be — William, Feb 01 '16 at 09:24
If cPanel isn't allowed on Server Fault or Stack Overflow, where should questions about it be? — brimstone, Apr 16 '16 at 20:48
quite ironic that this question was classed as 'off-topic' for StackOverflow but is the most active question i've ever had one here..... I hope it helped others :) — Zabs, Sep 13 '16 at 11:43
You can get email notifications by removing this part ">/dev/null". Also be sure to add the desired email address as the notification email address in cPanel cronjob section. — Dushan, Apr 28 '22 at 16:17

score 111 · Answer 1 · edited May 17 '13 at 09:57

111

I used this command to activate cron job for this.

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/yourfilename.php

on godaddy server, and its working fine.

edited May 17 '13 at 09:57

Javascript Coder

5,691
8
52
98

answered Mar 13 '12 at 10:37

Pank

13,800
10
32
45

5

What does `-q` stands for? – Bhavik Shah Nov 30 '15 at 10:27
4

@BhavikShah According to http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.options.php, `-q` is for Quiet mode, suppresses HTTP header output – William Feb 01 '16 at 11:32
@William Thanks. Got it. – Bhavik Shah Feb 02 '16 at 05:10

score 72 · Accepted Answer · edited May 01 '13 at 04:02

72

In crontab system :

/usr/bin/php is php binary path (different in some systems ex: freebsd /usr/local/bin/php, linux: /usr/bin/php)
/home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php should be your php script path
/dev/null should be cron output , ex: /home/username/stdoutx.txt

So you can monitor your cron by viewing cron output /home/username/stdoutx.txt

edited May 01 '13 at 04:02

tomb

1,817
4
21
40

answered Sep 07 '11 at 11:18

Somy A

1,682
15
18

1

I am using this now and it works but I do not get any email notification any ideas why not? php /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php note I had to put the following line at the top of the PHP script #! /usr/bin/php -q – Zabs Sep 07 '11 at 12:04
If u want cronjob send emails for u, u must use php mail(), i dont thinks cronjob have automatic mail system, unless u using shell scripting or php. – Somy A Sep 08 '11 at 13:26
1

When I click on the "cronjobs" tab in cPanel, there are two boxes on the page - one for the command you wish to execute, and another for the e-mail address you want the output to be sent to. This is in cPanel 11. – user3640967 Oct 13 '15 at 11:36
2

What will be full command? I mean full command in one line with all options. – Auj Jul 05 '16 at 22:59
@SomyA please could you tell me the command for run java script file. – Narender Reddy May 23 '18 at 09:42
@NarenderReddy i thinks this is what you looking for [Running Command Line in Java](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8496494/running-command-line-in-java?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa) – Somy A May 24 '18 at 22:27
@SomyA thanks for replay i want java script using a cron job within CPanel.THe give command for tun php file but iwant to run java script file – Narender Reddy May 25 '18 at 06:31
which language are cron jobs written in? also, i want to apply a cron job to a python/scrapy script that i wrote which requires 'scrapy crawl crawlername' to be executed from the CLI to run? never done this before. any help would be huge <33 – oldboy Jul 02 '18 at 00:11
How i can limit the size of cron job log file?or create a different log file on daily bases? – Rana Nadeem Jun 01 '20 at 06:23
as in unix system you can use something like `logrotate` for limiting log file size – Somy A Jun 02 '20 at 08:20
@RanaNadeem you can name the output file as date and it will create new file for every day like `/usr/bin/php /home/username/public_html/yourcronfile.php < /home/username/cron_output_\`date +\%d-\%m-\%Y-\%H-\%M\`.txt` – Haritsinh Gohil May 13 '21 at 12:52

k102 · Answer 3 · 2011-09-07T11:22:45.383

28

>/dev/null stops cron from sending mails.

actually to my mind it's better to make php script itself to care about it's logging rather than just outputting something to cron

edited Sep 07 '11 at 11:22

answered Sep 07 '11 at 11:15

k102

7,861
7
49
69

may I ask how you do that? Doesn't cronTabs output to something anyway? I do `>/dev/null 2>&1` at the ending as well... – ThomasK Jun 06 '13 at 19:36
@ThomasK if you make a task like this `/path/to/file.php > /dev/null` it's gonna be silent. – k102 Jun 07 '13 at 05:47

Emmanuel · Answer 4 · 2015-11-14T22:53:10.677

21

This is the easiest way:

php -f /home/your_username/public_html/script.php

And if you want to log the script output to a file, add this to the end of the command:

>> /home/your_username/logs/someFile.txt 2>&1

edited Nov 14 '15 at 22:53

answered May 06 '15 at 11:51

Emmanuel

4,933
5
46
71

score 17 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 25 '14 at 20:30

17

This is the way:

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/yourfilename.php >/dev/null

answered Jan 25 '14 at 20:30

Asi

395
4
13

score 13 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 26 '17 at 21:08

13

This cron line worked for me on hostgator VPS using cpanel.

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/scriptname.php

edited Jul 26 '17 at 21:08

Wh1T3h4Ck5

8,399
9
59
79

answered Apr 12 '16 at 21:27

Mike Volmar

1,927
1
22
31

score 11 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 21 '16 at 11:42

I've had problems using /usr/bin/php on CPanel as it is compiled as a "cgi-fcgi" binary and not "cli". Try using /usr/local/bin/php or, as it is first in the path anyway, just use 'php' instead:

php /path/to/script.php

If you want to run the script as an executable, give it +x perms and use the following as the first line of the script:

#!/usr/bin/env php

score 7 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 24 '17 at 05:46

7

I hope your problem is with path & php binary as well. If you have fixed the path as per older answers, please use php-cli instead of php command while running cron job.

It may be possible php_sapi_name() is not returning cli. Its returning something else like cgi-fcgi etc.

/usr/bin/php-cli -q /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php >/dev/null

I hope it will help.

edited Feb 24 '17 at 05:46

JH_

406
1
4
15

answered Aug 02 '16 at 08:01

Lakin Mohapatra

1,097
11
22

score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 09:51

4

This works fine and also sends email:

/usr/bin/php /home/xxYourUserNamexx/public_html/xxYourFolderxx/xxcronfile.php

The following two commands also work fine but do not send email:

/usr/bin/php -f /home/Same As Above

php -f /home/Same As Above

answered Oct 05 '17 at 09:51

Sajjad

123
1
8

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 30 '18 at 07:02

3

Suggested By Experts.

/usr/local/bin/php /home/username/public_html/path/to/cron/script

answered Jul 30 '18 at 07:02

Ali Akram

4,803
3
29
38

score 2 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 20 '19 at 17:59

2

It is actually very simple,

php -q /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php

edited Apr 20 '19 at 17:59

Greenonline

1,330
8
23
31

answered Apr 20 '19 at 16:22

Dushyanth Kandiah

546
7
12

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 14 '19 at 21:29

For domain specific Multi PHP Cron Job, do like this,

/usr/local/bin/ea-php56 /home/username/domain_path/path/to/cron/script

In the above example, replace “ea-php56” with the PHP version assigned to the domain you wish to use.

Hope this helps someone.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Oct 08 '20 at 14:55

0

On a Hostgator CPANEL this worked for me:

php /home/here_your_user_name/public_html/cronJob.php

answered Oct 08 '20 at 14:55

Nicoli

643
1
7
23

Run a PHP file in a cron job using CPanel

13 Answers13

Linked

Related