A couple cron job questions..

[Scooby08]

I created a cron job using the following line:

 

* * * * * curl -s http://www.siteurl.com/cron/cron.php

 

I have a couple questions that I cannot find answers to..

 

1) What does the -s mean and where can I find documentation on stuff like that?

2) How long will the cron run? I set it up the other day and it was running fine and now I checked it today and it has stopped.. Just curious as to why, and how do I keep it running always?

3) I also don't get any mail from this cron and was curious as to why that is as well.. I read for crons you have to actually place a code snipplet (>/dev/null 2>&1) at the end of the line to not receive email.. I didn't do that so what is stopping emails??

 

Thanks

[trq]

1)

-s/--silent

              Silent mode. Don’t show progress meter or error messages.  Makes Curl mute.

 

              If this option is used twice, the second will again disable silent mode.

 

You can read the manual yourself (this works for most Linux commands) by typing man <command> in a terminal. eg man curl.

 

2) That cron is set to run every minute of everyday. The only thing that should stop it is if your cron service is no longer running.

 

3) The -s option may have also actually silenced emails.

[Scooby08]

Thanks for the reply again thorpe!

 

One question though.. For #2, you said the only thing that should stop it is if your cron service is no longer running.. What would make your cron service to no longer be running? Am just trying to figure out why it stopped...

[trq]

It shouldn't just stop by itself. How are you being alerted that the cron job is no longer running?

[Scooby08]

I wasn't alerted.. I just noticed that the information on the page was not up to date..

[cpace1983]

Why aren't you calling the PHP file locally as this:

 

php -f /location/to/php/file/cron.php

 

This would be a better solution than invoking curl.