Running a php script with a .bat file

Question

I need to run a php script at midnight every night on my server. On a linux system I'd set up a cron job, but I'm stuck with a windows system.

I know I have to set up a task using the windows task scheduler, and that the task will need to run a .bat file which in turn will run the php file, but I'm stuck trying to write the .bat file.

What I currently have is:

@echo off
REM this command runs the nightly cron job
start "C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3\php.exe" -f C:\inetpub\wwwroot\sitename\crons\reminder-email.php

But when I try to manually run the .bat file to test it, I get a windows alert saying

"Windows cannot find '-f'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

What have I missed?

Answer 1

The START command optionally accepts a title for the created window as its first argument; in this case, it thinks that C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3\php.exe is the title to display and -f (the second argument) is the executable you want to run.

You can therefore fix this by providing a placeholder title, e.g.

start "email reminder task" "C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3\php.exe" -f C:\inetpub\wwwroot\sitename\crons\reminder-email.php

Or, preferably, you can ditch the START command altogether (you aren't using any of its unique facilities) and just run PHP directly:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\v5.3\php.exe" -f C:\inetpub\wwwroot\sitename\crons\reminder-email.php

Answer 2

Actually, you don't even need a batch-file. You can run the php-script from the task scheduler.

Just let the task scheduler run php.exe and set the location of the php-file as the argument of the task.