php does not create a file when executed with cronjob

Question

I have a very simple php file, that creates a text document everytime it runs:

$date = date('Y-m-d H-i-s', time());
$log_name = "Cronjob". $date;
if($fh = fopen($log_name,'w')){
    fwrite($fh, print_r($date));
    fclose($fh);
}

When I run the file using my browser a txt file is created on my server. When I run the file with a cronjob, it does NOT create a txt file. When I go to private > cron.log on my server I see that the cronjob works fine and the result is printed into the cron.log.

Can someone tell me why? I need to write that file on the server :)

Could you use full path to $log_name? It was created but it could be somewhere. So, it is better to use full path to see if the file is created. — ryanicle
– ryanicle, Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 7:31
secondly check whether the directory you are using have full control? like read/write to the user? — Numan Ali
– Numan Ali, Commented Apr 19, 2016 at 7:48

DocRattie · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-29 13:37:38Z

6

When executed in a cronjob, you need to provide the full path. The script does not executed in the directory it's located in, and therefor relative paths won't work.

$absolut_path = "whatever your absolutpath is"; // maybe something like /var/www/html/
$log_name = $absolut_path."Cronjob". $date;

edited Jan 29, 2019 at 13:37

answered Apr 19, 2016 at 7:31

DocRattie

1,4232 gold badges14 silver badges27 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Ben Spi Over a year ago

does that mean that every path in my php files need to be with the absolute path? E.g. that function in another php file woun't work: rename("/web/something.html", "/web/something-else.html");

Ben Spi Over a year ago

ok, it works perfectly now: I use the following statement with dirname(FILE) to solve the problem: $log_name = dirname(FILE)."/Cronjob". $date;

DocRattie Over a year ago

"/web/something.html" is a full path, so that should work.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

php does not create a file when executed with cronjob

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related