Running PHP using Cron

Question

I have a PHP file that sends email.

Now what I need is for this PHP file to send email every hour. I tried Cron with Linux (Ubuntu).

I have the line:

0 * * * * /var/etc/apache2/php(source of the php.ini file) /var/www/name_of_folder/mailer.php

But it is not working.

Can anyone help me? I'm new with Cron jobs.

Gerald Schneider · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-23 08:20:35Z

2

You need to use the php binary, not a configuration file. The default location of the PHP command line binary on ubuntu is /usr/bin/php, so try this:

0 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/name_of_folder/mailer.php

If you don't have a PHP binary (you can find out the location with which php) you may have to install the CLI package

sudo apt-get install php5-cli

edited May 23, 2014 at 8:20

answered May 23, 2014 at 8:12

Gerald Schneider

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9 Comments

user3167732 Over a year ago

I'm tryin it tough i didn't see any php binary in the /usr/bin :(

Raggamuffin Over a year ago

I think PHP should be in the PATH on ubuntu, so unless you've compiled a specific version of php to run with this script, i think you could just use 0 * * * * php /var/www/name_of_folder/mailer.php

Gerald Schneider Over a year ago

@RaggaMuffin-420 never assume that the cron daemon has the same PATH (or other environment variables) as your user.

user3167732 Over a year ago

But the ubuntu server can already run php files. do i still need to install another one?

Gerald Schneider Over a year ago

If you want to run PHP scripts from the command line, as crond does, you need the command line interface. You can't use the apache module for this.

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Raggamuffin · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-23 08:20:27Z

0

Providing this script is only for CLI/cron purposes

Find out where your PHP binary is using which php

copy the output.

At the start of your mailer.php script add a shebang: #!/path/to/php

chmod your mailer.php to 755

then you don't need to use the php binary in the crontab, just the path to the mailer.php script:

0 * * * * /var/www/name_of_folder/mailer.php

answered May 23, 2014 at 8:20

Raggamuffin

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