cron php script

[HAMM3R]

I have a php page that displays "Online" and "Offline" statuses for different hosts. It works by attempting to open a socket to those hosts. Because this can be a time intensive task to for 3 hosts every time the page loads, the page often is very slow to fully load. So how can I make the php script run with cron? That is, every 10 minutes run the status checks on the hosts and save the results in a flat text file or something. That way the website can just read the text file. This should dramatically reduce the loading time of the pages. I know about cron and how to add to it. So do I just put in cron the php script? I dont think the server can run the php script if it's not initiated in apache. So im lost. How do I make cron be able to run a php script much like apache would? Ive seen this done before with news sites and such. Thanks in advance!

Austin

[zq29]

The command would be something like:

0 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/php /usr/home/*username*/public_html/script.php

The second part of the command "/usr/local/bin/php" points to the PHP install on the server, the script is run through the command line rather than through Apache.

[HAMM3R]

Awesome! Thanks SemiApocalyptic!

[SharkBait]

Instead of using /usr/local/bin/php

I've used the lynx text webbrower and pointed it to the php file.

Though I'm sure its quicker to do the other ;)