crontab execution of a URL??

Anon

Hi all,
Is it possible to execute a url in a crontab?
I've got this script running on www.myswebsite.com/page.php?command=all
unfortunately I can think of no other way to execute this url periodically and I was hoping the linux/apache can execute a URL in crontab.
Any ideas? Much appreciated!

Red

axsdeny

yeah, use curl or lynx in your cron.

curl http://www.myswebsite.com/page.php?command=all

Anon

thanx dave, that was quick.
Anybody know if the CRON gets logged so I can check if it works properly, (besides using email echo etc)?

RED

Anon

you could pipe the output to some log file I guess.

just to add, the correct syntax for curl on your example would be

curl -O http://www.myswebsite.com/page.php -d command=all

[deleted]

I thought you couldn't execute a PHP script with the crontab because it's an html embedded language. The posts on this board said something about it having to be a CGI install. Can someone please elaborate on how curl words. Easy way to test cron is having it point to a file like this every minute:

echo "hello there" >> crontxt.txt

axsdeny

yeah you can use PHP in command line.

php somefile.php3

it will report any errors that happens.

Anon

I've not been able to execute a php script from the command line directly, but using a remote file retriever like wget or curl will work -

curl may not be installed on your machine, but wget will be

both will connect to the server specified (http or ftp) and retrieve the specified file. As it is connecting to the server using the http protocol, the url is processed server-side if server-side processing is required, and the resulting http page is retrieved. Thus if that page contains executable scripts, then they will get processed and executed in the retrieval. I meant to pipe the output to a logfile by incorporating the output into the php script. If you piped the output using the crontab, you would effectively save the http source of the retrieved file

[deleted]

Thanks Andy -

I'm still a little confused about this. Let me explain what I have to test my cron.

in the cron tab:
* /usr/bin/lynx /path/to/phpmail.php3

the phpmail.php3 file:
<?php
mail("me@mysite.com", "My Subject", "testing");
?>

The error message:
Alert!: Unable to access document.

Your Terminal type is unknown!

Enter a terminal type: [vt100]
TERMINAL TYPE IS SET TO vt100

lynx: Can't access startfile file://localhost/home/myuname/www/phpmail.php3

It's not my server so I can't install anything. How would I do this with wget or curl? If I give up, can I do this with perl?

Thanks for you help eveyone.

Anon

Hi Mark,

I'm unable to get lynx to parse php pages - maybe there's a flag I'm missing but I dunno

for wget

/usr/bin/wget http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/phpmail.php3

test it in the command line to see if it works:
wget http://www.yoursite.com/path/to/phpmail.php3

[deleted]

ok - I got it to work.
I replaced the path to the file with an actual URL (http://mysite.com)

The problem now is that if anyone punches in the url, they will execute the script. This is a once a day script that will check the database and perform the relevant mailings. I suppose I could I could make the url something that no one would think of or have a hash that matches a password that constantly changes. I could also make the window of execution only one minute (same time cron is scheduled.) This all seems fairly cumbersome though. How are scheduled mailings typically handled?

[deleted]

Andy,

As I just posted, I got it to work with lynx. I used the same exact command that you just posted with lynx replacing wget. My server doesn't have wget in the usr/bin, perhaps yours doesn't have lynx?

Anon

in this case, it would appear that perl is the way to go (am learning perl bit by bit, but am useless)

The other way with lynx may make use of the -get_data and -post_data flags, to simulate html get and pst form data. That way you could start your script

<?
if ($name==name && $password==pass) {
//mail code here
} else {
exit();
}
?>

Don't know how lynx works to help you with the command, but maybe someone else can
(you basically want to execute
http://yoursite.com/path/to/mail.php?name=yourname&password=pass)

I could do it using curl, but I dunno about lynx
at the command line, type
whereis curl

or
locate curl

to see if it's installed anywhere...

axsdeny

No no no. This is all too complicated. Don't rely on the webpage. Rely on a separate PHP script. That way no one can inadvertantly execute it. Make a text file called 'filename.php3' with your code in it. Example:

<?
mysql_query(blah blah blah);
mail(blah blah blah);
?>

then in your crontab file, setup something like this:

45 10 * root /usr/bin/php /path/to/your/dir/filename.php3

[deleted]

Good point - As long as it's not in the www directory, nobody can execute the file anyway, right?

Anon

this has been an interesting thread, thanx!
So basically curl in cron is a great way to periodically \"borrow\" data from other peoples webpages by retrieving, outputting and stripping the source code? Ah the wonders of the web...

Anon

yeah, you can rip an entire website with one command,
but sshhhh you didn't hear that from me
;-)

Anon

This won't work, however, if you have PHP_mod, right? I was under the impression that to access PHP scripts from the command line you either needed a workaround like curl or lynx, or have PHP as a CGI?