Help with running cron from within a PHP script

Product Support
1

My hosting provider allows me to configure cron tasks that run specific php scripts, but not specific standalone commands.

I’m guessing I could collect a few commands into a single PHP file (or multiple) and fire those scripts say every 5 minutes on the server.

I’m not really expert in OO PHP though. Is there any guide to the syntax for running a command like this from within a PHP script?

php /path/to/mautic/bin/console messenger:consume email

2

You can write a PHP script to run shell commands like the one you described. For executing shell commands, PHP has the exec(), shell_exec(), and passthru() methods.

I suggest using the exec.

The following file, mautic-commands.php , contains the solution you want. Please Update the list of commands you want to group.

<?php

// List of commands
$commands = [
    'php /path/to/mautic/bin/console messenger:consume email',
    'php /path/to/mautic/bin/console cache:clear',
];

foreach ($commands as $command) {
    $output = [];
    $returnVar = 0;

    exec($command, $output, $returnVar);

    if ($returnVar === 0) {
        echo "Command '$command' executed successfully:\n";
        echo implode("\n", $output);
    } else {
        echo "Command '$command' failed with return code $returnVar.\n";
        echo "Output:\n";
        echo implode("\n", $output);
    }
    echo "\n";
}

Then include the php /path/to/mautic-commands.php to the cron.

1 Like
3

Thanks brother, that’s great. Now I find my host has disabled exec() so I’m having to go back to them, but I’m getting closer. Really appreciate your help, thank you!

4

I’m glad that the solution helped you.

5

What you’ve reported sounds phony baloney to me;

but not specific standalone commands.

You sure about that and not that your cronjob entry is interpreting the args as a new cmd?

I would first try to double quote the CMD.

i.e.
* * * * * /usr/local/bin/php "/path/to/mautic/bin/console messenger:consume email"

If that fail, you don’t need to have exec to run a PHP script…

How to do it;
Create a shell file with that content:

#!/usr/bin/bash

# First CMD
/usr/local/bin/php /path/to/mautic/bin/console messenger:consume email

# Second CMD
/usr/local/bin/php /path/to/mautic/bin/console messenger:consume email

# Third CMD
/usr/local/bin/php /path/to/mautic/bin/console messenger:consume email

#  Add more lines for more CMD

Save it and then run chmod a+x on it

From there, in your crontab, add your conrjob to run every now and then.
* * * * * /path/to/your/shell/script

I’ll also suggest to make use of “flock” (probably already installed on your server). This would avoid overlapping the cronjob.