Getting cron job error because of

Question

I've set up a cron job to run. It executes a php file which is named cronj.php But it doesn't work and cron job notification I get is:

/root/website/myworld/blabla/cronj.php: line 1: ?php: No such file or directory

And line 1 in that file is simply a php tag <?php I don't know how

possible duplicate of [shebang #! does not work in ubuntu linux when created in Windows 7](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5383960/shebang-does-not-work-in-ubuntu-linux-when-created-in-windows-7) — mario, Dec 24 '11 at 21:44

Amadan · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-24T21:37:14.247

7

Cron is executing the file as if it was a shell script. Normally you would put in a shebang line (like #!/usr/bin/env php) at the top of the file so that the shell knows how to invoke it, but PHP doesn't like it - as it outputs everything outside its tags. Thus, instead of this:

0     3     *     *     *         /mypath/myscript.php ...

try this:

0     3     *     *     *         /usr/bin/env php /mypath/myscript.php ...

or use @Ravenex's trick.

EDIT I was just rightly admonished for assuming PHP behaves in a consistent way. Apparently, shebang does work in PHP. My apologies to @chess007.

edited Dec 24 '11 at 21:37

answered Dec 24 '11 at 21:24

Amadan

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Hm, indeed, you are correct. I tested CLI with standard input, and foolishly believed it would behave the same as with a filename argument. – Amadan Dec 24 '11 at 21:35
so no my path would look like this?: /usr/bin/env php /root/website/myworld/blabla/cronj.php – Ilja Dec 24 '11 at 21:48
That looks correct. Or, as I have been told, you can keep your cron entry as is, and put `#!/usr/bin/env php` as the first line in your PHP script. – Amadan Dec 24 '11 at 21:50
Ok I'll test both solutions now. – Ilja Dec 24 '11 at 21:52

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 12 '18 at 14:50

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We use cron to run nightly tasks in a php facebook game. We do it by using curl like this:

/usr/bin/curl http://www.ourdomain.com/page.php

If I remember right we had some issues using localhost to try to avoid external lookups. Also we tried using php command line execution, which mostly worked but caused a few strange bugs.

edited Feb 12 '18 at 14:50

Randy

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answered Dec 24 '11 at 21:19

Ravenex

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We also found this allows for easier debugging because it puts the script in a place where it can be tested from a browser and debug information can be readably outputted. Though with this solution be careful to think about security so that outside users can't stumble upon and run the script. – Ravenex Dec 24 '11 at 21:33

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 24 '11 at 21:16

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Try to call the web url (http://.....).

It's apparently not parsing it as an PHP script.

Edit: Please show use the cronjob you used, to verify my hunch was right.

answered Dec 24 '11 at 21:16

Derk Arts

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 16 '15 at 11:09

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Use this to set your cron and also give email address in your cron setting Cpanel so that you get an email when cron runs successfully

wget -O - http://YOURSITE/cron.php

answered Oct 16 '15 at 11:09

Gyan

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Getting cron job error because of

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