trying to create a cron on ubuntu server

[katie4335]

I've been trying to create a cron that doesn't seem to be working. i'm running Ubuntu 14.04. for testing i've set my cron to run every minute.

btw, i'd created the cron using, 'sudo crontab -e'. not sure if sudo was needed, but thought why not for testing purposes in case permissions might be an issue (by the way, the php script runs fine from command line without sudo)

here's a couple variations that I've tried, but don't work,

1 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php /var/

http://www/html/test/index.php

1 * * * * /var/

http://www/html/test/index.php

and, here's my cron (the whole thing)...

# Edit this file to introduce tasks to be run by cron.
# 
# Each task to run has to be defined through a single line
# indicating with different fields when the task will be run
# and what command to run for the task
# 
# To define the time you can provide concrete values for
# minute (m), hour (h), day of month (dom), month (mon),
# and day of week (dow) or use '*' in these fields (for 'any').# 
# Notice that tasks will be started based on the cron's system
# daemon's notion of time and timezones.
# 
# Output of the crontab jobs (including errors) is sent through
# email to the user the crontab file belongs to (unless redirected).
# 
# For example, you can run a backup of all your user accounts
# at 5 a.m every week with:
# 0 5 * * 1 tar -zcf /var/backups/home.tgz /home/
# 
# For more information see the manual pages of crontab(5) and cron(8)
# 
# m h  dom mon dow   command
1 * * * * /var/[URL unfurl="true"]www/html/test/index.php[/URL]
~             
~

 

[ChrisHirst]

Using

sudo crontab -e

Will edit the root user crontab (and the commands will be run as root) whereas

crontab -e

will edit the crontab for the current user.

1 * * * * means "run command at one minute past the hour"

to run the command every one minute is

*/1 * * * *

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[katie4335]

thanks for the reply, but i was looking at getting the cron working... that was my issue

 

[himdp]

As the first field is minutes, would an entry of ***** also work?

 

[ChrisHirst]

Provided the asterisks are separated by spaces, yes it will.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[himdp]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for that, the missing spaces was my careless mistake.

 

[katie4335]

hi himdp, you're right about using all asterix's for testing purposes, so i've made the update, but i'm still not seeing the cron work. besides creating the cron, am i also supposed to do something elsewhere? scratching my head why this is not working

 

[katie4335]

any takers on why this is not working? besides creating the cron (shown in the examples below), is there anywhere else i'm meant to do something to get it working, like a specific config file located somewhere?

if anyone can help, is it possible that you could give me exact step by step instructions on creating the cron, so i don't miss anything?

i've tried these two variations and they don't work..

example 1

* * * * * /var/[URL unfurl="true"]www/html/test/index.php[/URL]

example 2

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=me@myemail.com

* * * * * /var/[URL unfurl="true"]www/html/test/index.php[/URL]

 

[katie4335]

just got it working. this is the correct code,

* * * * * php /var/

http://www/html/test/index.php

was able to figure it out after reading this post...

http://askubuntu.com/questions/430509/cannot-run-cron-job-for-a-php-script/430664#430664

 

[ChrisHirst]

I guess we were confused with what you meant by "not working", it seems as you really meant that the script wasn't running rather than 'cron' not working.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[katie4335]

cheers for trying to help tho... def appreciate it!

 

[ChrisHirst]

No problem, it has served as a reminder to me to continue throwing in my usual pedantic comment of;

Define 'not working'

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum