[beedie]

I am sure this is very simple.
I have a script at
http://localhost:8888/process/testing/onetime.php
I want it to run as a cron job.

10 1 * * * /usr/bin/wget -q localhost:8888/process/testing/onetime.php

What is wrong with this.
Is there some path info missing or something else
Thanks

[besson3c]

well, for starters it needs the http:// in front of localhost. I doubt that you have wget installed in /usr/bin, this is the Linux install path. Are you doing this on a Linux box? What happens when you run that command manually?

[beedie]

i have tried with http:// and failed but i haven't installed wget. How is that done?
I am on os x tiger ibook. Also I am using Mamp so directories are in Applications if that messes things up.

[besson3c]

Why are you doing it that way anyway? Why not just execute it via the command line PHP interpreter?

what happens when you:

php /web/server/path/process/testing/onetime.php

[beedie]

I need it to recur. Maybe onetime isn't such a good file name. it was at the time!

[besson3c]

I know you need it to recur, you can put that command in your crontab.

[beedie]

So this what is in my crontab:

Code:
# minute        hour    mday    month   wday    who     command

48 * * * * /usr/bin/php Applications/Mamp/htdocs/process/testing/onetime.php

I am changing the minute each time i try.
Something must be wrong with the syntax or Tiger now doesn't support it.
Should be a newline after command

[besson3c]

The Applications needs a leading slash, but I think there might be a gap in your understanding...

All cron does is executes a particular command at a particular time interval. If that same command (/usr/bin/php Applications/Mamp/htdocs/process/testing/onetime.php) doesn't produce the desired output when invoked in the command line manually, it is not going to work as a cronjob.

So, again, what happens when you invoke it manually? There is no point in worrying about your cronjob if the command does not even work properly.

[beedie]

ok this has now worked from the command line

Code:
curl http://localhost/process/testing/onetime.php

this did not work in the crontab

Code:
49 * * * * curl http://localhost/process/testing/onetime.php

do i need to add a user?

[besson3c]

No, my guess would be that your cronjob doesn't know the path to your curl command. Do a:

which curl

in your terminal and paste in the full path name to your cronjob, replacing "curl". Then shortly before the cronjob is to run, do a:

tail -f /var/log/system.log

in your Terminal, or else watch this output in your Console app (inside your Utilities folder). The object here is to look for whether or not your cronjob is dying because of a particular error. If it is, this error should be logged. Let me know if this is generating an error.

It is likely that adding the full path will get this working for you though. I have no idea what executing onetime.php is supposed to do, and why it needs the overhead of curl or wget rather than just executing it via the command line PHP interpreter, but whatever works...

[beedie]

This is what came in the Terminal


bob:/private/etc Bob$ tail -f /var/log/system.log
May 19 09:38:02 bob cp: error processing extended attributes: Operation not permitted
May 19 04:08:03 bob postfix/postqueue[541]: warning: Mail system is down -- accessing queue directly
May 19 09:38:03 bob cp: error processing extended attributes: Operation not permitted
May 19 09:47:14 bob sudo: Bob : TTY=ttyp1 ; PWD=/private/etc ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/nano crontab
May 19 10:13:31 bob sudo: Bob : TTY=ttyp1 ; PWD=/private/etc ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/nano crontab
May 19 10:22:03 bob sudo: Bob : TTY=ttyp1 ; PWD=/private/etc ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/nano crontab
May 19 10:24:28 bob sudo: Bob : TTY=ttyp1 ; PWD=/private/etc ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/nano crontab
May 19 10:28:28 bob sudo: Bob : TTY=ttyp1 ; PWD=/private/etc ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/nano crontab

[beedie]

the onetime file is generating thumbnails on my local server. i would be setting it fro regularly once i can get it to work. Slows down my site to do it on the fly
Hope that helps understand my situation

[besson3c]

What time did your cronjob run? Anything that corresponds with those timestamps? Did it execute properly this time now that you added the full path to curl?

Once you get this to work, I would experiment with:

/path/to/php /path/to/process/testing/onetime.php

less overhead that way.

[beedie]

it did not execute even with the path to curl

Thsoe timestamps look like each of my attempts to get it to run

Also this doesn't work in the terminal

bob:/private/etc Bob$ /usr/bin/curl http://localhost/process/testing/onetime.php
curl: (7) couldn't connect to host

[beedie]

Actually this does work

Code:
bob:/private/etc Bob$ /usr/bin/curl http://localhost:8888/process/testing/onetime.php

from the command line.
Thank you again for all your patience

[beedie]

rebuilding cron was never done

crontab /etc/crontab

was all that was needed.
Thanks for all your suggestions