I can't set cron job

Question

I've tried to set a cron job in "crontab -e":

* * * * * /usr/bin/php /home/vagrant/Code/xxx/testCron.php

testCron.php file creates another file, it contains only this:

<?php
$f = fopen('cron-' . date('H-i-s') . '.txt', 'w+');
fwrite($f, 'asdf');
fclose($f);

But the file cron-....txt doesn't appear. Were can be a problem?

---

I did/checked this:

• Cron is working. I checked this with sudo "service cron start" commad.
• the $PATH contains "/home/vagrant/.composer/vendor/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

Answer 1

You can check the log from cron jobs to identify errors.

Depending on your system, the cron log can be located in different places. Find the files containing cron logs:

grep -ic cron /var/log/* | grep -v :0
./auth.log:1246
./auth.log.1:3054
./bootstrap.log:3
./syslog:187
./syslog.1:220

Then view the contents of the log in question, e.g. via cat:

cat /var/log/syslog

Or view the latest run of testCron.php in that file:

grep -i testCron.php /var/log/syslog | tail -1

Answer 2

Your script creates the cron-...txt file with no path; therefore it appears in the current directory - if it has write permission. Cronjobs will have a different start directory - usually the user's home, but may be anywhere, depending on configuration.

Try one of these:

• Change your script to create the file in a specific directory
• Do a chdir() to set a specific current working directory
• Set a specific directory in your crontab configuration
• Look for the files in the user's home directory
• Ensure the user has write permission to the directory you are placing the files in