CronTab: Not running my PHP scripts?

Question

final edit: i have moved this to 406 Error with GET Cron Job?

EDIT 4:

i am getting a 406 error page with this cron!

here is the crontab (copied from cPanel):

    * * * * * GET https://abc.com/cron/sendBulletinEmails.php >>
/home/abc/public_html/cron/logs/sendBulletinEmails.log

here is the log:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>406 Not Acceptable</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Not Acceptable</h1>
<p>An appropriate representation of the requested resource /cron/sendSurveyEmails.php could not be found on this server.</p>
<p>Additionally, a 404 Not Found
error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.</p>
</body></html>

i have php set up on a virtual machine running linux. i've set my crontab to:

* * * * * { cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails

however, the cron does not seem to be running. it is not logging any errors and is not sending emails. do you know what is wrong?

thanks!

EDIT 3:

i've found logs of the cron running. nothing seems to be wrong but it still isnt working or outputting anything!

Aug  5 16:20:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18543]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:21:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18549]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:22:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18554]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:23:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18559]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:24:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18564]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:25:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18569]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:26:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18574]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:27:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18595]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:28:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18601]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)
Aug  5 16:29:01 fiqsrv1 CRON[18610]: (cgurnik) CMD ({ cd /var/www/cron && /usr/bin/php -f sendQueuedEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendQueuedEmails)

EDIT 2:

now when i run the script, it outputs nothing.

i thought i'd post the script to show that it ALWAYS outputs something, which is why i am confused when i run it and nothing comes out (no errors, no output)

    <?php
require '../includes/common.php';

/*
 * check that this cron job isn't already running (it can take a long time if there is a large email load, which it is meant for)
 * if it is running, end the script
 * if it is not running, continue
 * set the global variable for this cron job to on
 * get all queued emails that have their time to be sent in the past (and so they should be mailed out now)
 * loop through them, checking to see if the user is still set to receive the email, and if so, sending it to them
 * set the global variable for this cron job to off
 * 
 * JUST IN CASE: put the script in a try catch after the email cron is set to running in globalvars so that it is always reset, even upon failure
 */
// check that this cron job isn't already running (it can take a long time if there is a large email load, which it is meant for)
if(GlobalVars::isEmailCronRunning()) {
    echo "Already running! Aborted.";
    exit; // if it is running, end the script
}

// if it is not running, continue
// set the global variable for this cron job to on
GlobalVars::set(GlobalVars::VAR_IS_EMAIL_CRON_RUNNING, 1);

try {

    //  get all queued emails that have their time to be sent in the past (and so they should be mailed out now)
    $queuedEmails = Emails::getAllQueuedToSend();

    // loop through them, checking to see if the user is still set to receive the email, and if so, sending it to them
    $numEmailsSent = 0;
    $numEmailsRecalled = 0;
    foreach($queuedEmails as $email) {
        if(Emails::shouldBeSentToUser($email)) {
            Emails::sendQueuedEmail($email[Emails::id]);
            $numEmailsSent++;
        } else {
            Emails::update($email[Emails::id], array(Emails::result => Emails::RESULT_NOT_SENT) );
            $numEmailsRecalled++;
        }
    }

    // set the global variable for this cron job to off
    GlobalVars::set(GlobalVars::VAR_IS_EMAIL_CRON_RUNNING, 0);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // set the global variable for this cron job to off
    GlobalVars::set(GlobalVars::VAR_IS_EMAIL_CRON_RUNNING, 0);
    echo "Error: " . print_r($e);
}

if($numEmailsSent || $numEmailsRecalled) {
    $details = "Sent " . $numEmailsSent . ". Recalled " . $numEmailsRecalled . ".";
    echo nl2br($details);
    ActionLogs::add(ActionLogs::CAT_CRON_JOBS, ActionLogs::TYPE_CRON_EMAILER_RUN, $details);
} else {
    echo "No emails were sent.";
}
?>

EDIT: i tried running it and got the following:

Warning: require_once(/includes/Swift-4.0.6/lib/swift_required.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/includes/common.php on line 31

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '/includes/Swift-4.0.6/lib/swift_required.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') in /var/www/includes/common.php on line 31

how can i set the include path so that this works both on my linux debugging server AND my linux live server?

Perhaps it can't find `php`. Try specifying the full path (i.e. `/usr/bin/php`) — Wolph, Aug 05 '10 at 13:40
Why should there be any errors? Does cron send emails when nothing is output? — , Aug 05 '10 at 13:41
does *php -f sendBulletinEmails.php* run okay from the command line ? — JoseK, Aug 05 '10 at 13:41
Why all cron values are "*"? Is it supported on your system? — Vladislav Rastrusny, Aug 05 '10 at 13:41
is this a user crontab or /etc/crontab? for the latter, you must have at least a user called "cd" for it to work. — , Aug 05 '10 at 13:44
This is a dupe of http://serverfault.com/questions/167382/crontab-not-running-my-php-scripts/167473#167473 — Stefan Lasiewski, Aug 05 '10 at 17:32
that one is too crowded, and it took a few steps to get to this point. this is an updated question. — Garrett, Aug 05 '10 at 17:34
i'm not sure if it is user or etc, but i am logged in as a user. how can i find out? — Garrett, Aug 05 '10 at 19:34
@WoLpH, yep that fixed my problem too. I had to give it the full path to the PHP executable for it to work. — Mark Tomlin, Feb 22 '13 at 05:21
Possible duplicate of [406 Error with GET Cron Job?](http://serverfault.com/questions/168662/406-error-with-get-cron-job) — HopelessN00b, Feb 24 '16 at 09:07

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 05 '10 at 20:46

2

You can use the web version in the cron if GET(lwp-request) or curl is installed on the server

GET

* * * * * GET http://localhost/cron/sendQueuedEmails.php > /dev/null

curl

* * * * * curl -o /dev/null http://localhost/cron/sendQueuedEmails.php

answered Aug 05 '10 at 20:46

sajal

602
7
12

thats a good solution, but i need it to be secure too – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 21:05
Whats insecure about this method? you can always hack sendQueuedEmails.php to execute only if accessed from localhost. – sajal Aug 06 '10 at 08:37
i get this in my log (using the GET method): 404 Not Found
Not Found

The requested URL /cron/index.php was not found on this server.

Apache/2.2.12 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80
– Garrett Aug 06 '10 at 20:22
in the other thread i think you mentioned you can access
```
http://localhost/cron/sendQueuedEmails.php
```
... however you can use this url
```
http://actualdomain.com/cron/sendQueuedEmails.php
```
... use your actual subdomain/domain hosting this file... the same url ud need to access via a browser. but make sure to modify this script to allow access ONLY from the server IP!
– sajal Aug 07 '10 at 18:44
ignore the
bit... the system was removing http:// portions from my previous comment
– sajal Aug 07 '10 at 18:46
i have an issue. i should have tested like that before, because now, on the live site, i have to use the real domain, and it is causing issues. i have updated my question with the problem details. thanks!! – Garrett Aug 09 '10 at 20:36
just a note: hitting localhost may not work if, for example, the server is configured to serve up different content on different domains. abc.com maybe be an apache virtualhost (this is the case with one of my drupal installs) – Pete Mar 14 '14 at 18:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · 2010-08-07T12:35:17.290

Heed my advice grasshopper! Been here, done this. Do this the easy way and use the cgi version of php "/usr/bin/php-cgi". If you don't have it, install it "apt-get install php5-cgi"

Don't believe me? Try this.

In your directory create a text file called test.txt and add some random text inside. Now create a new directory called test and a file inside it called test.php then add this code:

<?php

include '../test.txt';

?>

Your directory structure should look something like this:

/yourdirectory
/yourdirectory/test.txt
/yourdirectory/test/test.php

Change to the root directory "cd /" and run this from the commandline:

/usr/bin/php -f /yourdirectory/test/test.php

and then

/usr/bin/php-cgi -f /yourdirectory/test/test.php

See the difference?

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 13:59

0

A more simple way to test whether a line is runnable with cron:

env -i bash -i /dev/null <actual command>

answered Aug 05 '10 at 13:59

Wrikken

981
9
22

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 14:36

0

Check /var/log/cron and see if it is actually being run. If it is, try sudo -u to see if it gives errors.

answered Aug 05 '10 at 14:36

James L

6,025
1
22
26

i dont have '/var/log/cron'. i guess that means its not running? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 14:56
which flavour of Linux are you running? – James L Aug 05 '10 at 15:04
ubuntu. i updated my question with some new info =) – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 15:10
does /var/www/cron/includes/Swift-4.0.6/lib/swift_required.php exist? It looks like the includes are expecting a different working directory. – James L Aug 05 '10 at 15:14
no, /var/www/includes/Swift-4.0.6/lib/swift_required.php exists (without cron/). how can i make it look there? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 15:37
i fixed the include path (or so i think), because now it runs with no errors, but the script doesn't do anything =S what's wrong? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 16:21
Does the script work normally? If not, it's a coding issue. If so, where do you normally execute it from? I'm guessing it sends emails so check /var/log/mail.log (I think that's the location on Ubuntu) after you've run it to see if there's anything there. – James L Aug 05 '10 at 20:07
it does work from a browswer. from the terminal, it doesn't output anything, and i think the logs would be useful to see if there are any errors now but i lost them after deleting the file =S there's nothing in my mail log. – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 20:29
Do you execute the script directly from the website or via another one? Do you have Plesk running on this server? Can you send any email using PHP from command line? What's the code. The problem here isn't cron. – James L Aug 05 '10 at 20:42

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 16:41

Also - I would try using the full path to the php executable. Usually it is '/usr/bin/php' but you can issue 'which php' to double check that for your system.

Your entries would look something like this:

- - - - cd /var/www/cron; /usr/bin/php -f sendBulletinEmails.php
- - - - cd /var/www/cron; /usr/bin/php -f sendSurveyEmails.php

Also, if you only changing the directory so that the files are in the current directory, you can always modify the cron to be:

- - - - /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/cron/sendBulletinEmails.php
- - - - /usr/bin/php -f /var/www/cron/sendSurveyEmails.php

Hope this helps.

/usr/bin/php is the full path to the php executable – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 16:56 — Garrett, Aug 05 '10 at 16:56

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 17:13

0

Right now, these scripts may be sending their output to the bitbucket, and you won't know why they are failing. Your cronjobs may not be configured to send email, or email on the system may not be working.

I'm not a fan of emailing cron output, partially because people always think it's ok to spam the output to 'root', and I'm the one who receives that email. Since in most cases we're talking about 1-2 lines of output, I suggest you log the output of your cronjobs to syslog.

* * * * * { cd /var/www/cron && php -f sendBulletinEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendBulletinEmails
* * * * * { cd /var/www/cron && php -f sendSurveyEmails.php ;} |/usr/bin/logger -t sendSurveyEmails

answered Aug 05 '10 at 17:13

Stefan Lasiewski

23,667
41
132
186

where is the log located? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 18:33
@Garrett: This will be sent through syslog, so it will be sent to one of the standard logfiles under /var/log . Distros are different, but ou can see the details in /etc/syslog.conf . It will probably be under /var/log/messages. – Stefan Lasiewski Aug 05 '10 at 18:42
i found the logs in /var/log/messages, so i played around for a while, but then i removed it to clean it up and now it's not coming back =S is there a way to make it come back and continue logging? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 19:36

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 17:16

0

Add the folder containing the "includes" folder in your include path. To find it use locate swift_required.php

answered Aug 05 '10 at 17:16

greg0ire

316
1
7
26

how? and is locate a php command? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 18:35
no, locate is a shell commande, using it will give you the full path to any file named like swift_required.php, and you'll know where your includes folder is. – greg0ire Aug 05 '10 at 22:21

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 05 '10 at 18:11

0

Based on your original question, and the code you posted, you're missing a shebang line which you'd need to run your PHP script this way. Try changing the first few lines to this:

#!/usr/local/bin/php5 -q
<?php

// your script here

?>

And you should have success.

Of course replace /usr/local/bin with the correct path to your PHP install. It may/may not be the same. You only need this initial line to run it as a cron job, not if you're running it from the browser.

answered Aug 05 '10 at 18:11

ESW

389
9
16

i added that to the file, and the cron job hasn't performed its actions so i'm assuming its not working. is there a way i can put that in my crontab instead of the file itself? – Garrett Aug 05 '10 at 18:31
not that I know of; I have a PHP cron running this way at the moment. Are you sure you put in the correct path to PHP on YOUR server? the executable is likely not installed as "php5" on your machine (it is on mine). – ESW Aug 05 '10 at 18:39

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 06 '10 at 05:18

Hey... howz it hangin essa? Here are two solutions to your problem.

Use full paths for include files inside your scripts. Need to do this for all includes. If the include file has other includes, you'll need to update those as well.

include '../somefile.php' should be include '/somedir/somefile.php'

If #1 won't work or you don't want to use full paths to includes, then try using php-cgi instead of php cli version.

Also read this section of the php manual paying close attention to cli and cgi differences.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.differences.php

The CLI SAPI does not change the current directory to the directory of the executed script!

Kick @ss!

CronTab: Not running my PHP scripts?

9 Answers9

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