Creating a Cron Job with PHP

[pea]

Sorry about posting twice in a row . I'm looking to use cron for one of my apps which i'll be distrobuting, but i can't find any information about how to create a cron job using only php. Is it even possible?

[.josh]

possibly with exec or shell_exec

[rhodesa]

the normal way to edit the cron is with 'crontab -e', which opens the cron in a text editor. obviously, you can't do this with PHP exec(), but you can also do 'crontab filename' and it will install the contents of 'filename' as the new cron. So using PHP create a temporary file will all the cron info in it (not just new, old and new) then run 'crontab /path/to/file' via one of PHP's exec() functions

[pea]

Well that's easy. I'm not familiar with cron, i assume it's just a file with a list of schedules. Is there so way to return the contents of the file for me to write back?

[haku]

fread()

[rhodesa]

execute 'crontab -l' to get the current contents of the file. just search google for 'crontab' and there will be TONS of info on how the crontab is formated

[pea]

I don't think i have permission to do that, or i might as well use fwrite to add the cronjob.

[pea]

i've already tried crontab -l, but can't get any info. I'll do some more tests though.

[pea]

This forum really needs an edit option.

 

Just for anyone else wanting to know the answer; Cronjobs were enabled but exec wasn't:

 

<?php

 

if(exec('crontab -l') == FALSE){

    echo 'false';

}

 

?>

[.josh]

This forum really needs an edit option.

 

You're allowed to make an edit up to like 2-3m after you post (don't remember exact window).  But past that, we've disabled it, due to people constantly deleting posts and threads after the fact, or else going back later and editing and then it causes confusion in the whole problem solving process.