Crontab issue

jonnekke · #1 (**permalink**) 07-03-09, 03:02 AM

Hi there..

i created a cronjob on my webserver wich calls a file named "cronjob.php".
In this file I run these lines of code:

PHP Code:


			
$emailsend = "me@my-email-adres.com";
$subject = "Test CronTab";
            
$recipient1 = "someone@his-email-adres.com";
        

$headers = "From: Me <$emailsend>\n";
$headers .= "X-Sender: <$emailsend>\n";
$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP\n";
$headers .= "Return-Path: Me <$emailsend>\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"; 
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n";  
        
$message = "
<html>
<head><meta content=\"MSHTML 6.00.2900.3132\" name=\"GENERATOR\"></head>
<body bgcolor=\"#ffffff\"><center>crontab testing.</center></body>
</html>";
                            
mail($recipient1, $subject, $message, $headers);

The cronjob settings are good and the "script" is running. But the PHP script
is not executed. I got these errors:

/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 3: =: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 4: =: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 6: =: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 10: =: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 11: .=: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 12: .=: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 13: .=: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 14: .=: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 15: .=: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 17: =: command not found
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 29: syntax error near unexpected token `$recipient1,'
/var/www/vhosts/my-site.nl/httpdocs/cronjob.php: line 29: `mail($recipient1, $subject, $message, $headers);'

where did I go wrong?

_j

End User · #2 (**permalink**) 07-03-09, 09:16 AM

I suspect you're not calling PHP to execute the file, but trying to execute it directly from cron. Show us the crontab statement that calls this file and we'll have a look. It should look something like this (with different paths and scheduling params):

10 23 * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/cronjob.php

Notice how PHP is called and then the file to be run is specified.

wirehopper · #3 (**permalink**) 07-03-09, 02:17 PM

You can use a 'MAILTO' in the crontab to have the output sent to a specific address.

This runs every night and tells me what files have been added or changed on my server.

Code:

MAILTO="email@domain.com"
5 0 * * * find $HOME/public_html -mtime 0

crontab(5): tables for driving cron - Linux man page
Schedule tasks on Linux using crontab
Scheduling Backup Jobs using at and crontab in debian linux crontab at files format or syntax

TheDemoSite · #4 (**permalink**) 07-03-09, 03:23 PM

An easy and quick way to add scheduled jobs is using this:
phpJobScheduler - scheduling PHP scripts to run at set intervals your replacement for cron jobs

And there is no worrying about server application location of PHP or your user location on the server! Just add the full url to run.

you can add any number of jobs to run and it will show you the last time it ran:
phpJobScheduler - Schedule Jobs

Very useful, and its free.

Jcbones · #5 (**permalink**) 07-03-09, 07:41 PM

or if cURL is enabled you can use...

Code:

curl --silent --compressed http://URL/to_file/not/a/file/path.php

wirehopper · #6 (**permalink**) 07-04-09, 12:13 AM

... or wget ...

Code:

5 0 * * * wget http://domain.com/file.php