How to set up PHP cron jobs?
To set up PHP cron jobs, there's two way to do:
- Using the /usr/bin/php /path/to/file.php command in your crontab.
If you have access to CronJobs, you can simply enter that command into the "Command to execute" field.
But this way is not recommended, as your script may not run as expected. It's difficult to parse variables in the script, too.
- Set cron job to call its URL.
This is more convenient, and you can test whether your script executes as expected or not just by entering its URL into a browser.
You can use the wget or lynx command to call that URL, and lynx is recommended, as it's a browser.
To set up PHP cron jobs with lynx, you can enter lynx http://www.example.com/cron.php with http://www.example.com/cron.php is PHP script's URL. You can also add some GET variables into the URL using ?var1=value[&var2=value2&....].
Or, you can try some free cron jobs services to set up your PHP cron jobs :) Most of them work perfectly and have their own simple WebCron interface.
PHP Cron Jobs - Tips and Trick.
- To make sure your cron jobs run until finishing its jobs, you can try tips at Set cron jobs with PHP scripts.
- To prevent your cron script from running when you create / save / enable your cron at SetCronJob, read this tips.
- If you wanna set cron job every minute to do some small jobs, you can buy a cron every minute at price of $10 / year from SetCronJob.
