Cannot run PHP in Linux cron job

[N0BGS]

Hi all:

I've spent the last 3 hours trying get this cron job to run on my own Fedora 17 box with Apache, and PhP 5.4.12:

5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/nws-alerts.p

Below is the error output:

PHP Warning: fopen(./cache/nws-alertsMainData.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/html/nws-alerts.php on line 264
PHP Warning: fopen(./cache/nws-alertsBoxData.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/html/nws-alerts.php on line 426
PHP Warning: fopen(./cache/nws-alertsIconData.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/html/nws-alerts.php on line 515
<!-- nws-alerts.php - 1.14 - 05-Aug-2012 - NWS Public Alerts -->
<!-- Cron job enabled -->

<!-- cURL error: Connection time-out -->
<!-- http://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwaatmget.php?x=MEZ015 -->
<!-- First attempt in getting preliminary URL failed -->
<!-- Second attempt successful -->
<!-- http://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwaatmget.php?x=MEZ015 -->

<!-- Preliminary codes checked: 2 -->
<!-- Preliminary data cull: 20.4198 seconds -->
<!-- Average cull per code: 10.2099 seconds -->
<!-- Primary alerts downloaded: 0 -->
<!-- Primary data cull: 0.0000 seconds -->
<!-- unable to open cache file -->
<!-- unable to open cache file -->
<!-- unable to open big icon cache file -->
<!-- Total script process time: 20.4236 seconds -->
PHP Warning: fopen(./cache/nws-notes.txt): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/html/nws-alerts.php on line 932
PHP Warning: fputs() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in /var/www/html/nws-alerts.php on line 933
PHP Warning: fclose() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in /var/www/html/nws-alerts.php on line 934

...of course, despite the error messages, all the files the scripts are looking for DO actually exist.

I'm a PHP moron so I suspect I am missing something simple--probably a permissions issue somewhere in the path. If I run that same command manually, it runs fine. I have checked and rechecked the perms on the html root folder, the files, etc all to no avail. Nothing seems to work regardless of which user runs the cron job--including root.

Probably for this same reason, my new Saratoga-based site is very slow. http://cheesewhiz.dyndns.org

Educated and even wild guesses welcome!

Thanks,

--Kurt

[saratogaWX]

Likely, the only thing missing is doing a 'cd /your/home/directory' The cron command uses cron's working directory, not necessarily your document root directory for it's default directory, so a ./cache/ directory name is likely not available (or writable).

Instead of running a PHP script directly, run a shell script (I call 'cronscript.txt') instead which contains

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
cd /var/www/html
/usr/bin/php -q nws-alerts.php

then have the cron command be

5 * * * * /bin/bash /var/www/html/cronscript.txt >/dev/null &2>1

Best regards,
Ken

[N0BGS]

Why didn't I think of that??

Works perfectly. I removed the dev/null redirect temporarily to see the output and there are no errors.
Came back to the forum when I noticed that a west coast IP address was showing up in my httpd access.log.
Thanks for checking the other stuff, too, Ken.

The scripts are a very nice piece of work. Thanks for making them available to us, and thanks for a very fast reply.

...now to make the rest of it work properly!

Take care,

--Kurt

[saratogaWX]

Why didn't I think of that??

Works perfectly. I removed the dev/null redirect temporarily to see the output and there are no errors.
Came back to the forum when I noticed that a west coast IP address was showing up in my httpd access.log.
Thanks for checking the other stuff, too, Ken.

The scripts are a very nice piece of work. Thanks for making them available to us, and thanks for a very fast reply.

...now to make the rest of it work properly!

Take care,

--Kurt

You are very welcome, Kurt -- yes, that was me checking out your site.

Thanks for the kind words about the scripts -- it is truly a hobby (weather/websites) that keeps your interest up

Best regards,
Ken