will this cronjob work?

Question

im trying to set up a cronjob to run a PHP file. i just want to know if i am doing it right or not.

lets say the php is located at http://mysite.com/myscript/cronjob.php, and i want it to run every 3 hours.

i am very new to cronjobs so i apologise if it seems like i have no clue what i am doing.

Minute  Hour    Day     Month   Weekday     Command

*   */3     *   *   *   http://mysite.com/myscript/cronjob.php

i want this to run that PHP script every 3 hours. will this work or do i have to use a different command?

Answer 1

No, this won't work. A URL is not an executable, it is simply a URL.

You could put wget http://mysite.com/myscript/cronjob.php for your command, but is that really what you want?

The best way (if the script is on the local server) is to call PHP directly:

php /var/www/myscript/cronjob.php

Answer 2

Almost, this should do it

* */3 * * * wget -q -o /dev/null http://mysite.com/myscript/cronjob.php

or with curl

* */3 * * * curl -s -o /dev/null http://mysite.com/myscript/cronjob.php

the -s / -q will silent the output and the -o will redirect the scripts output into /dev/null