Run a PHP file in a cron job using CPanel

103
votes

I am just trying to run a PHP script using a cron job within CPanel - is this the correct syntax:

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php >/dev/null

I am not getting any email notifications stating a cron has been completed, do I need to do anything specific with the PHP file?

13
phpcroncpanel
I think it is quite relevant seeing as many projects are hosted on Cpanel, and one would need to know how to run cron jobs if need be - William
If cPanel isn't allowed on Server Fault or Stack Overflow, where should questions about it be? - brimstone
quite ironic that this question was classed as 'off-topic' for StackOverflow but is the most active question i've ever had one here..... I hope it helped others :) - Zabs
Thanx @Tatu Ulmanen It works for me! - Tushar Rmesh Saindane

13 Answers

67
votes

In crontab system :

  • /usr/bin/php is php binary path (different in some systems ex: freebsd /usr/local/bin/php, linux: /usr/bin/php)
  • /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php should be your php script path
  • /dev/null should be cron output , ex: /home/username/stdoutx.txt

So you can monitor your cron by viewing cron output /home/username/stdoutx.txt

107
votes

I used this command to activate cron job for this.

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/yourfilename.php

on godaddy server, and its working fine.

29
votes

>/dev/null stops cron from sending mails.

actually to my mind it's better to make php script itself to care about it's logging rather than just outputting something to cron

20
votes

This is the easiest way:

php -f /home/your_username/public_html/script.php

And if you want to log the script output to a file, add this to the end of the command:

>> /home/your_username/logs/someFile.txt 2>&1

16
votes

This is the way:

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/yourfilename.php >/dev/null
12
votes

This cron line worked for me on hostgator VPS using cpanel.

/usr/bin/php -q /home/username/public_html/scriptname.php
10
votes

I've had problems using /usr/bin/php on CPanel as it is compiled as a "cgi-fcgi" binary and not "cli". Try using /usr/local/bin/php or, as it is first in the path anyway, just use 'php' instead:

php /path/to/script.php

If you want to run the script as an executable, give it +x perms and use the following as the first line of the script:

#!/usr/bin/env php
6
votes

I hope your problem is with path & php binary as well. If you have fixed the path as per older answers, please use php-cli instead of php command while running cron job.

It may be possible php_sapi_name() is not returning cli. Its returning something else like cgi-fcgi etc.

/usr/bin/php-cli -q /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php >/dev/null

I hope it will help.

3
votes

This works fine and also sends email:

/usr/bin/php /home/xxYourUserNamexx/public_html/xxYourFolderxx/xxcronfile.php

The following two commands also work fine but do not send email:

/usr/bin/php -f /home/Same As Above

php -f /home/Same As Above

2
votes

Suggested By Experts.

/usr/local/bin/php /home/username/public_html/path/to/cron/script
1
votes

It is actually very simple,

php -q /home/username/public_html/cron/cron.php
0
votes

For domain specific Multi PHP Cron Job, do like this,

/usr/local/bin/ea-php56 /home/username/domain_path/path/to/cron/script

In the above example, replace “ea-php56” with the PHP version assigned to the domain you wish to use.

Hope this helps someone.

0
votes

On a Hostgator CPANEL this worked for me:

php /home/here_your_user_name/public_html/cronJob.php