How to pass multiple parameters to cron job with curl?

Question

I'm running two cron jobs:

This one executes without a problem:

curl -sS http://example.com/cronjob.php?days=1

But this doesn't run at all:

curl -sS http://example.com/cronjob.php?days=1&month=1

Is this because of the ampersand (&)? If yes, how to pass multiple parameters?

Using argv is not an option.

score 144 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 05 '10 at 20:21

144

You'll notice that this doesn't exactly work in your shell, either.

What you need to do is put single quotes around the URL, like so:

curl -sS 'http://example.com/cronjob.php?days=1&month=1'

answered Jun 05 '10 at 20:21

SamB

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Windows user running curl binaries should use double-quotes instead of single quotes to get multiple query parameters command working. – vivek.m Jan 06 '12 at 15:49
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This works for me - many minutes wasted not understanding why my second parameter wasn't working. – James Wilson Feb 25 '19 at 14:19
Welp, I feel stupid now. I was also forgetting my quotes. Thanks man. – Rezkin Oct 07 '19 at 22:17

score 20 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 27 '18 at 15:14

20

As an alternative way, you can use \ before & which is a special character for shell. Generally, & is one of special characters that are meaningful for shell.

So, using a backslash [beside Quoting solution] can be a good solution to this problem. more

In your example you can simply apply this command:

curl -sS http://example.com/cronjob.php?days=1\&month=1

answered Oct 27 '18 at 15:14

MMKarami

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➕1 for actually explaining the issue being `&` behaving as a special character [which as i looked it up on your link indicates 'background job' ] – Chris Marisic Nov 01 '18 at 16:08
this was the exact reason that my curl didn't work. thanks! – Sam Lee Nov 18 '19 at 05:44

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 05 '10 at 20:26

5

Try a POST Request

curl -d "days=1&month=1" www.example.com/cronjob.php

answered Jun 05 '10 at 20:26

streetparade

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Any particular reason you suggest a POST? – SamB Jun 05 '10 at 20:28
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No harm in mentioning it, it's good to know (Although I'll go with GET) – Yeti Jun 05 '10 at 20:30
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well it just up you you also could do it with a GET request. This is just how i would do it. However this would work, and that is the point :-) – streetparade Jun 05 '10 at 20:34
You can not know if it will work - it depends on the script if it looks POST variables or only GET variables. – Kristijan Jul 02 '13 at 11:15
on the receiving end it wont matter ($_REQUEST) but using an implicit string as URL not sure how post would work. Using GET or REQUEST will retrieve the variables – roberthuttinger Apr 23 '18 at 13:41

How to pass multiple parameters to cron job with curl?

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