getting the server to run a script

[Anon]

Hey there,

I have written a PHP script that searches a MySQL database of birthdays and if any birthday is equal to the current date minus 7 days it emails a reminder to me saying "hey, don't forget it's <name>'s birthday in seven days". (It also prints a table showing all the names and birthdays on the web page.)

At the moment that script only runs if I load the page. I would like to make it so every day the server somehow runs that script so even if I don't look at my site I'll still get an email reminder.

Is this possible?
If so, any ideas how I go about it?

many thanks - dunstan

[Anon]

it is possible : you need to call this page from within a cron-job on your unix machine or if you are running windows use the task sceduler.

if you don't have access to the cronjob, you could automaticaly call the page from your own computer with some kind of sceduler.

[Anon]

On unix: compile PHP as a cgi-binary (see manual)
Then put an entry in your crontab to start your php script.

Some people use lynx to actually call the page from their webserver, but if you use something like a hitcounter, the cronjob will also register as a hit and you get false information. :-) It also generates a lot of overhead.

[Anon]

that's great, thanks very much both of you :o)