Cron job does not execute a php file

Question

I have setup a cron job thusly:

*/15 * * * * root /usr/bin/php5.6 /var/www/example.com/cr.php

(Yes, root is owner for now - I'll fix that later)

I have also tried with -q after .../php5.6

but it doesn't seem to be working, even though syslog shows it executes every 15 minutes - for example:

Dec 20 17:45:01 e2e-53-27 CRON[2601]: (root) CMD (root /usr/bin/php5.6 -q /var/www/example.com/cr.php)

If I execute the part after the username 'root' at the bash prompt it does work.

This is apache2 running on Debian. I don't know if this makes any difference but the PHP file is using curl to call an external API that sends an SMS.

can you run that on the command line... that's the first step. — ArtisticPhoenix
Yes, as I mentioned, I tried it at the bash prompt (= command line) and it works. — Chiwda
Add ` > /var/www/example.com/cr.log 2> /var/www/example.com/cr.error.log` to see if there is any errors. Also I suggest adding something simple first to file: echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s') — Justinas
Run the script as the same user in the same kind of condition, there may be environment variables set or not set that influence the behavior. — deceze
@Justinas your logging trick helped. Apparently it could not understand what "root" was. The erro log said something iike root not found. I thought providing a username was required?! — Chiwda

Romeo Ninov Romeo Ninov · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-20T13:38:58

You should use this format in cron file to make it work:

*/15 * * * * /usr/bin/php5.6 /var/www/example.com/cr.php

And the best way is to put this in script and add as first line in the script command:

. /root/.bash_profile

to make the environment as it is in command line

Cron job does not execute a php file

1 Answers