How to run Cron jobs in PHP?

Better Stack Team
Updated on October 5, 2023

To run Cron jobs in PHP, you can create a PHP script with the code you want to run and schedule it to run using Cron. Here are the steps to create and schedule a PHP script:

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Create the PHP script

Create a PHP script with the code you want to run as a Cron job. I can look something like this:

 
// ...
// Send reminder email to users
foreach ($users as $user) {
    $to = $user['email'];
    $subject = 'Reminder';
    $message = 'Hello, ' . $user['name'] . '! This is a reminder.';
    mail($to, $subject, $message);
}

Set the correct file permissions:

Make sure that the file permissions of your PHP script allow the user running the Cron job to execute it. You can set the permissions using the chmod command:

 
chmod +x reminder.php

Schedule the Cron job:

Open the crontab file using the command crontab -e and add the following line to schedule the Cron job:

 
0 9 * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/reminder.php

This Cron job will run every day at 9am and execute the reminder.php script using the PHP interpreter located at /usr/bin/php.

Verify the Cron job:

You can verify that the Cron job has been added to the crontab file by running the following command:

 
crontab -l

By following these steps, you can create and schedule a PHP script to run as a Cron job.