Php Cron job in ubuntu 10.10 does not execute for lampp - Help needed

Question

I need some help with a daily cron job I am trying to schedule under ubuntu 10.10. I have added the job via crontab -e and when I do crontab -l, it looks ok. Path and naming are fine:

58 23 * * * /usr/bin/php -f /home/eem/cars1/cron/cronjob1.php

However, the cron does not execute. I have tried to run it manually from gnome scheduler. No success. I tired to run it manually from the console with this command, again without success:

/usr/bin/php -f /home/eem/cars1/cron/cronjob1.php

My var/log/syslog show that the file is executed but nothing changes in the website on Xampp:

May 14 06:27:57 eem-VirtualBox /usr/bin/crontab[31959]: (eem) LIST (eem)

This command: */5 * * * * echo hello in crontab -e executes and shows in syslog:

May 14 05:40:01 eem-VirtualBox CRON[31085]: (eem) CMD (echo hello)
May 14 05:40:01 eem-VirtualBox CRON[31084]: (CRON) info (No MTA installed, discarding output)

Below some diagnostics:

Command1: ps -C cron

Terminal:

PID TTY          TIME CMD
  881 ?        00:00:02 cron

var/log/syslog:

May 14 05:17:01 eem-VirtualBox CRON[31033]: (root) CMD (   cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)

---

Command2:: cat /etc/crontab

Terminal:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

# m h dom mon dow user  command
17 *    * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6    * * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6    * * 7   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6    1 * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
#

---

Command3: ls /usr/sbin/anacron

Terminal: /usr/sbin/anacron

---

Command4: grep CRON /var/log/syslog

Terminal:: This and much more:

May 14 05:09:01 eem-VirtualBox CRON[30048]: (root) CMD ( [ -x /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] && [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && find /var/lib/php5/ -depth -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f -cmin +$(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime) ! -execdir fuser -s {} 2>/dev/null \; -delete) May 14 05:17:01 eem-VirtualBox CRON[31033]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)

Apologies for the long post but after struggling for several days with this I am desperate to find the problem. Hopefully, it will be helpful to other people after that.

Answer 1

I finally managed to find out what is wrong with the code. It turned out the ADOdb libraries are not supported on command line.

So I had the PHP files changed and it all works fine now.

Answer 2

I read your comments, you should definitely, get it to run manually before attempting to schedule it.

Get the info from php configuration:

<?php
     phpinfo() 
?>

To find out installation path which php, for the version php -v

Finally make sure the script is executable chmod +x /home/eem/cars1/cron/cronjob1.php