I'm using Cron to run a script every minute.
My cron.php is located in
/var/www/test.com/public_html/cryptointerface/cron.php.
Using Crontab (crontab -e) I defined the setup as:
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/test.com/public_html/cryptointerface/cron.php
I let the cursor in an empty line right after this one.
After saving I got the message: installing new crontab.
The problem is that although syslog suggests that Cron is executing, it does not have the supposed effect. cron.php contains very basic code for writing something to file.
There is something that I'm missing, however I don't know what. All this is in a Ubuntu server.
I've tried following the instructions here but I still can't get my cron job working on my mac using crontab.
I've saved the following cron job:
*/2 * * * * /usr/bin/php http://localhost/social-api-examples/cron.php
And when I type crontab -l it shows me it's saved. But my PHP page isn't being hit. Is there a way to check if it's working?
Also, when I saved the cron job, it was to a temporary file location. Is that ok?
The solution was just to use "php" instead of the path to php:
*/2 * * * * php http://localhost/social-api-examples/cron.php
/usr/bin/php is not an HTTP client: you need to pass it a file path not a URL.
Alternatively, if it is important to involve a web server, you can replace /usr/bin/php with an HTTP client such as curl or wget.
You should at least test the command you are trying to execute
You cannot execute a URL with php http://somesite.com/index.php
instead use wget if it's installed on your system:
wget http://somesite.com/index.php
I've been having some issues with crontab recently. After switching servers, I realized none of my cronjobs are being run. After looking at PHP info, I realized php was run with CGI, so I realized I had to switch lynx -dump URL_HERE to php -q PATH_HERE.
In the actual PHP file, I stared it out like #!/usr/bin/php -q to define where php is located on my server. However, it's not getting run. I've even set up crontab to send me an email once anything runs. No email. I've checked my junk, trash, spam, and I've even tried switching emails. Nothing.
Here's what I have now: * * * * * php -q /home/USER/public_html/file.php.
If I copy & paste it into the command line, it works wonderfully. If I run it through crontab, it doesn't get run.
You are missing envrionment variables. Try a simple test like this
add this to your crontab
* * * * * set > /tmp/vars
wait 2 -3 minutes, go back and remove the crontab entry you just created.
Next,
From the shell command line you normally use
set > myvars
diff myvars /tmp/vars
This will show you the differEnce in envIrionment. Modify your cron job environment. Just add what is needed.
You can do a couple things in order to debug this.
1) In your crontab change your entry to:
* * * * * php -q /home/USER/public_html/file.php > /tmp/filecron 2>&1
Make sure you edit the entry by typing:
crontab -e
Then run:
tail -f /tmp/filecron
To debug the output as it runs.
2) As sudo user or root, tail the cron log to make sure your cron is executing properly:
sudo tail -f /var/log/cron
The first step will give you information related to the php file itself (syntax errors etc) if that is what is failing. The second step will help you out if the crontab itself is not configured properly.
You are intending this job to run every 5 minutes right ? This is what it will do with your stated line.
I am trying to run in mac a php script using cron. I want this php script to run every one minute. I read several sources online and from my understanding is better if I use launchd. In any case, I try to make it work with cron and then if it works fine I might try to use launchd.
So here is what I do:
I wrote this command in a txt file:
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/php_test/main_script.php
There I have the path to php (I found it with the "which php" command) and the path to my php script.
I named the txt file: crontasks.txt and I run it through terminal with this command:
crontab /Users/dkar/Desktop/crontasks.txt
When I list the crons (crontab -l) I see that this job is listed. But nothing comes as output every one minute. The output is supposed to be an image stored in a specified folder. What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance
D.
You might have a slight miscomprehension how crond processes the "crontab" files. It would suffice to run the command crontab -e, which would let you edit your personal crontab or you edit the system crontab.
If you use crontab -e it will open the default editor (vi/vim) and you can enter the line:
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/php_test/main_script.php
Then you simply save your file. If you want to use the system crontab you will have to edit it directly and enter the line. Additionally the system crontab has one more field for the username. Like this:
* * * * * /usr/bin/php root /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/php_test/main_script.php
On the next full minute your script will be executed by crond.
I have built one php file to check some result, so that I need to setup a cronjob.
I set one to run every 30 minute, so that the results will be send. However, I don't know why my crontab did not run after every 30 minute.
Here is how I set the crontab:
*/30 * * * * php /var/www/html/result.php
I have confirmed my file directory is correct. What I not sure is about the timing part: isn't it possible to use */30 * * * * or 30 * * * * ? I set */30 * * * * and did not work.
Given
*/30 * * * * php /var/www/html/result.php
There are multiple possibilities why it is not working:
First of all it is important to check if the simple execution of php /var/www/html/result.php. This is required. But unfortunately, accomplishing this does not mean that the problem is solved.
The path of the php binary has to be added.
*/30 * * * * php /var/www/html/result.php
to be changed to
*/30 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/result.php
or whatever coming from which php.
Check the permission of the script to the user running the crontab.
Give execution permission to the file: chmod +x file. And make sure the crontab is launched by a user having rights to execute the script. Also check if the user can access the directory in which the file is located.
To be safer, you can also add the php path in the top of the script, such as:
#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
...
?>
Make sure the user has rights to use crontab. Check if he is in the /etc/cron.d/deny file. Also, make a basic test to see if it is a crontanb or php problem.
* * * * * touch /tmp/hello
Output the result of the script to a log file, as William Niu suggested.
*/30 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/result.php > /tmp/result
Use the -f option to execute the script:
*/30 * * * * /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/html/result.php > /tmp/result
Make sure the format in crontab is correct. You can do so for example using the site Crontab.guru.
To sum up, there are many possible reasons. One of them should solve the problem.
It may be because php is not in the path. crontab has a very minimal path. So, include the full path for your php program.
you can test your cron commands by piping the output to a file, e.g.
*/30 * * * * php /var/www/html/result.php > /tmp/result.log
From this reference page, under "Crontab Environment":
cron invokes the command from the user’s HOME directory with the
shell, (/usr/bin/sh). cron supplies a default environment for every
shell, defining:
HOME=user’s-home-directory
LOGNAME=user’s-login-id
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:.
SHELL=/usr/bin/sh
Also, /30 syntax might not be supported by all platforms, so, try to change it to 0,30 instead.
Had a similar issue; from command line, it worked, but from cron, no go.
had a "include ("./connect.php"); in my php code for the db stuff.
Removed that, and added the connect.php code directly into the php script, and it worked from cron.
I had a similar issue on Ubuntu 14.04.1 and the problem turned out to be the way I was modifying the crontab:
I was using sudo crontab -e instead of just crontab -e and this caused my changes to be ignored.
I had a funny one regarding this. Although my scripts would run manually, they wouldn't run from crontab.
Turns out that because the script was being run from /usr/bin/php rather that the location of the file (as it does when I run it manually) my php require wasn't finding the files I wanted. Changing that to reflect the full address fixed it.
troubleshooting by running the script as /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/myfile.php helped me find the issue
You can use */30 * * * * wget http://my.domain.com/path/to/php/result.php
But Crontab executes the task using the current user that ran crontab -e. When you use wget it’s handled by Apache using the www-data user/group pair
First, make sure the script works as expected.
$ php /var/www/html/result.php
Second, edit the crontab for the Apache user account
$ sudo crontab -u www-data -e
or
$ sudo crontab -u root -e
Now add the crontab and output to a log file.
*/30 * * * * php /var/www/html/result.php > /tmp/result.log
After a day of puzzling why my script would work directly (to send data in an email to a gmail account) I discovered that all the deliberate sends worked when I clicked the url and all the cron sends went into spam. No idea why but I thought I'd share it.
Willem's answer showed me the way. In my case, I have a "include("connection.php")" inside my code. I changed connection.php to /my/full/path/connection.php. I have some rename() calls with the relative path, and I changed to the absolute path. That worked for me. I hope it can help someone else.
Easy and logical way:
Checking the cron logs at /var/log/cron will give you very useful info
less /var/log/cron
Eg.,
My cron entry is * * * * * /usr/bin/php /cat.php <== Run cat.php every minute
The log file will contain an entry similar to the one below every time a cron entry is run
Jan 24 08:06:01 OlaTower CROND[13641]: (root) CMD (/usr/bin/php /cat.php)
Jan 24 08:07:01 OlaTower CROND[13641]: (root) CMD (/usr/bin/php /cat.php)
Here, the php command will be executed every minute and there will be an entry in the log file every minute
If the entry is not there then crond is not even picking that cronjob. If the log entry is there and still you are not getting the desired output then there is something wrong with the command/application logic
Are you sure it is not running? If you use exec, realize that you are running from cron and the full path for everything is required, so instead of cp, you'll need to use /bin/cp.
Centos 7
For the record (and it could work for other distros)
I had the next script
* * * * * /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/html/cron.php >/tmp/result.txt
But it failed to execute.
In the /var/log/cron log file, I found the next line
crond[2213]: (/usr/bin/php) ERROR (getpwnam() failed)
What is that?
It's simple, the syntax of corn is * * * * * user command (check user)
* * * * * someuser /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/html/cron.php >/tmp/result.txt
Using Ubuntu w/ Vesta :
The following command works perfect for me,
/usr/bin/php /home/admin/web/mydomain.com/public_html/mycode.php
Feel free to comment if you have any question, have a nice day :)
I was stuck too. I am using centos 7 and had to run few php scripts. I initially tried this
$crontab -e
& inserted the scripts to be executed at 12 midnight.
0 0 * * * usr/bin/php /var/www/html/cronjob/myscript.php
However in var /var/spool/mail/centos, it gave me an error in the mail there
/bin/sh: usr/bin/php: No such file or directory
So then I used wget like this,
$ crontab -e
0 0 * * * wget https://myapplicationurl/var/www/html/cronjob/myscript.php
This also gave me an error.
ERROR 404: Not Found.
Then I realized my mistake of specifying the folder, since the url will already be pointing to html folder, the folder from there i to be specified, like this
0 0 * * * wget http://myapplicationurl/cronjob/myscript.php
and it worked !!!
Hope this helps any newbie like me :)
if you php script has an include or require, you must provide the full path yours includes
wrong way
// relative path
require_once("../library/PHPMailer/PHPMailerAutoload.php");
Correct Way
// full path
require_once("/home/bitnami/library/PHPMailer/PHPMailerAutoload.php");
I had same problem with my php. Then I test execute php from root dir:
php -f /var/www/html/my_proj_folder/test.php
and got some errors regarding path to lib (included files), such as parse_ini with argument 'config.ini' <- has been taken from my global lib and lose path when it has been started from root.
So,
try to run your php-file (php -f your.file)
check relative path and try to run with absolute path
check permissions to your.php - it has to have executable flag x (you can see it ls -l your.php and set by chmod +x your.php)
put #!/usr/bin/php -q before <?php in your main/executable file