This tutorial explains how to automate the execution of PHP scripts using a Linux utility called crontab. A crontab file is generated for each user on your server. Be sure to have a Mail Transfer Agents (MTA) such as Postfix installed. Cron job statuses (fails, successes, and reasons) are sent via an internal mail client to the user who owns the job. If there is no MTA installed, crontab will discard the output.

On Ubuntu, the cron job log file is views via:

grep CRON /var/log/syslog

In this example we’ll create a cronjob that will run our PHP script awesome-script.php, at 8:30 AM Monday through Friday.

To begin, open the crontab file by typing:

$ crontab -e

Next, paste the following into the file:

30 08 * * 1-5 cd /home/username/public_html/domain.com/public/my-cool-app/; php awesome-script.php

Just save and exit and you’re done!

Viewing Crontab Entries

To view the logged-in users crontab entries type crontab -l (-l is a lower case “L”) from your unix account as shown below.

$ crontab -l

Crontab Time Scheduling Formats

MM HH DD MM DOW

To specify, every time period (e.g., everyday of the week) use a single * symbol instead of a number. Here’s a table of crontab fields and allowed values:

$ crontab -e  #Create/Edit cron jobs in nano
$ crontab -l  #List current cron jobs
$ crontab -r  #Remove all cron jobs