[Techtalk] A PHP script in a crontab.

[Jaroslaw Fedevych (UALUG]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2005 at 11:47:17PM +1100, Sue Stones wrote:
> I have written a PHP script that I want to be executed automatically by 
> using cron.  But the problem is that nothing happens when I run it that 
> way.
> 
> The script runs in a web browser, and works as I want it to, but when I 
> put it in a cron tab, nothing happens.  I can think of 2 possible causes 
> of error.  (1) I am calling it wrong, I have been told by the web hoster 
> that the call statement should be something like this:
> 
> "GET http://www.hostyorkshire.com/scgi-bin/script.php > /dev/null "

Thanks, really, I have never before laughed *that* loud. At your web hoster,
of course, who deserves to be given "luser of the month" award.

What you *really* need is calling your script as you would do that from 
command line. There is no such command as GET. There *may* be a command
version of PHP though, which you may run. Like "php
/filesystem/path/to/your/script.php > /dev/null" or, if the script
outputs some diagnostics you'd like not to lose,  

"php /filesystem/path/to/your/script.php | mail -s "Diagnostics from my PHP script" somewhere at somehost.domain".

Please not that you lose your $_GET (canonically you should, but see
below) and $_POST arrays when the script is invoked; you get "normal"
$ARGV instead. (In fact, from some version PHP does make $_GET equal
to $ARGV, in order that scripts that do not distinguish calling method
might still work)

> 
> I am not sure what the GET does!  This doesn't work.
> 

This is HTTP protocol command, not a shell command. cron doesn't
talk HTTP.

> (2) the other possible cause is that the PHP code won't work if its not 
> executed in a web browser.  Does anyone know if this is so, and what I 
> have to do to make it work?
> 

Check if your script relies on anything from $_SERVER, as this may be 
the source of incompatibilities.

-- 
X Windows: It could be worse, but it'll take time.