Tell me about cron?
 

So I got this script & it's telling me to create a cron job??
How do I do this?

then it says ;
Using Cpanel, access cron jobs off the main page. There, click on Advanced (Unix Style), and enter your email address then enter the following information in the box's: (15) in first box, (0) in second, (*) in third, forth and fifth, (GET http://yourdomain.com/cron.php > /dev/null) in the text field.

My host/server don't use Cpanel?? & it's a linux based server. :(

What can I do..

mail them to create this cron for you,this is a managed server right?

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. :Oh crap

cron jobs are basically batch operations setup on the server. every *nix based comp utilizes them. more than likely you will need to contact your provider to set it up if you don't have access to cPanel or the command line. :2 cents:

me neither.. :1orglaugh
I found this & suddenly became more confused than I was to begin with;
http://www.unixgeeks.org/security/ne...ix/cron-1.html

I have a command line in shell access.. but I don't know what the commands are?

Well all servers are setup differently. Before just fiddling around and accidently screwing something up i'de contact your provider and ask them the proper way to access the crontab or have them set it up for you.

Here is a short list of commands. But if you aren´t familiar with shell commands, I higjly recommend to get your host setting it up, especially if there is important stuff running on the box.

http://www.jiffynet.net/faqs/sshcommands.html

Here's some references spacedog - it's easy stuff in reality and you can remove any screwups no problem...

http://www.talis.com/services/docume...and_syntax.htm

and here's references in the Unix manual..

http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?crontab+5

Crontab Entries

A crontab entry consists of two parts - a time to run, and a command to run.

The time to run (the first part of the entry) is broken up into 5 fields:
1. minute of the hour
2. hour of the day (on the 24 hour clock)
3. day of the month
4. month of the year (1 = January, 2 = February, etc.)
5. day of the week (0 = Sunday, 1 = Monday, 2 = Tuesday, ..., 6 = Saturday)

A * in one of these fields indicates that the job should be executed at any or every one of these, so for instance a * in the month of the year field means that this task should be carried out every month at the time specified in the other fields. A * in the day of the week field, when there is something in the day of the month field, does not mean that this task should be carried out every day, but rather that it should be carried out on the appointed day of the month regardless of what weekday it is. Only *s in the day of the week field, and the day of the month field, and the month of the year field would indicate a daily task.

Examples:
In the examples, [command] represents the full path and filename of the file you want to execute.

The job with this time to run would run every Sunday at 12:20 am:
20 0 * * 0 [command]

This job would run at midnight on any Friday the 13th:
0 0 13 * 5 [command]

You don't have to put just one time in a field. This job, for instance, would run every day at 12:30am, 2:30am, 4:30am, 6:30am, 6:30pm, 8:30pm, and 10:30pm:
30 0,2,4,6,18,20,22 * * * [command]

This one would run every Tuesday and Friday at 5:30 am:
30 5 * * 2,5 [command]

Creating a File For Crontab Entries

To register the cron commands with the server, you will need to create a plain text file with a list of all of the crontab entries. You will then use this file along with the server's crontab command to register them with the server. Once they have been registered, they can begin executing at the time you specify.

Start with an empty text file in the text editor of your preference. At the top of this file you will want to put any already existing crontab entries that you have running on your server. If you have never used cron before, there will not be any. If you have used cron before, you will need to login to your server through telnet or SSH and execute the crontab -l command. This will display a list of your existing crontab entries. Copy and paste this to the top of your text file.

Now you can start adding your crontab entries to the file.

Once you have all of the above steps completed, you can save the file. You can name it anything you want. It is recommended that you use cron.txt for the filename, however anything will work. To register these commands with the server, continue with the next section of this document.

Registering Your Cron Commands

Once you have created the text file containing your crontab entries, you will need to register them with the server. To do this, upload the text file to your server (for this example, assume the filename is cron.txt).

After the cron.txt file has been uploaded, login to your server through telnet or SSH. Change into the directory where you uploaded the cron.txt file and run the command crontab cron.txt. This will register the crontab entries with the system, and they will begin executing at the next scheduled time. To make sure your crontab entries were recorded properly, you can run the crontab -l command. This will display a list of all of the current crontab entries registered under your username.

i can hook the cron up for you......50 an eigth

Thanks for all the helpful information,, much appreciated :) :thumbsup