cron / cron

Cron API

Cron

This library enables you to have only one general crontab entry that will trigger several different cronjobs that can be defined through this library. The Cron library will decide if the job needs to run or not.

Attention: make sure you set the server crontab job to a correctly chosen frequency because if there is for example a cronjob defined in code to run every minute, your general crontab job needs to run at least every minute as well to work properly.

Use Case

Say you need two cronjobs in your application. One that will write the contents of a folder to a log file, and one that will empty the folder. This library enables you to create separate scripts (for example: cron.php) where you notify the Cron library of the two cronjobs. After defining the Jobs with their specifics, they can be added to the resolver and the run command can be given.

Your server crontab could now look something like:

* * * * * /path/to/php /path/to/cron.php >/dev/null 2>&1

The code example below is matched to this use case.

Code example

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

// Write folder content to log every five minutes.
$job1 = new \Cron\Job\ShellJob();
$job1->setCommand('ls -la /path/to/folder');
$job1->setSchedule(new \Cron\Schedule\CrontabSchedule('*/5 * * * *'));

// Remove folder contents every hour.
$job2 = new \Cron\Job\ShellJob();
$job2->setCommand('rm -rf /path/to/folder/*');
$job2->setSchedule(new \Cron\Schedule\CrontabSchedule('0 0 * * *'));

$resolver = new \Cron\Resolver\ArrayResolver();
$resolver->addJob($job1);
$resolver->addJob($job2);

$cron = new \Cron\Cron();
$cron->setExecutor(new \Cron\Executor\Executor());
$cron->setResolver($resolver);

$cron->run();

Cron currently only support triggering shell commands. This means you can trigger anything although it is highly encouraged not to call web urls. But if you really need to here are some example commands.

* * * * * /usr/bin/lynx -source http://example.com/cron.php
* * * * * /usr/bin/wget -O - -q -t 1 http://www.example.com/cron.php
* * * * * curl -s http://example.com/cron.php

Installation

Add the following to your project's composer.json:

$ composer require cron/cron

{
    "require": {
        "cron/cron": "^1.0"
    }
}

Crontab syntax

A CRON expression is a string representing the schedule for a particular command to execute. The parts of a CRON schedule are as follows:

*    *    *    *    *    *
-    -    -    -    -    -
|    |    |    |    |    |
|    |    |    |    |    + year [optional]
|    |    |    |    +----- day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7)
|    |    |    +---------- month (1 - 12)
|    |    +--------------- day of month (1 - 31)
|    +-------------------- hour (0 - 23)
+------------------------- min (0 - 59)

Each of the parts supports wildcards (*), ranges (2-5) and lists (2,5,6,11).

Contributing

All code contributions - including those of people having commit access - must go through a pull request and approved by a core developer before being merged. This is to ensure proper review of all the code.

Fork the project, create a feature branch, and send us a pull request.

To ensure a consistent code base, you should make sure the code follows the Coding Standards which we borrowed from Symfony. Make sure to check out php-cs-fixer as this will help you a lot.

If you would like to help, take a look at the list of issues.

Requirements

PHP 5.5.0 or above

Author and contributors

Dries De Peuter - [email protected] - http://nousefreak.be

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

License

Cron is licensed under the MIT license.

cron's Issues

Extract shell job to a separate package

It is always a good idea in case of pluggable systems like this, to extract as many components as possible, so that the main package can provide a stable contract with as less changing part (aka. interfaces, code that is possibly not changing, like exceptions, main entry points for plugins, etc) as possible.

Split from #18

Add full cron syntax support

Currently the following syntax is not supported:

• %
• L
• W
• Combinations of - and /
• #
• ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crontab#CRON_expression

/var/spool/cron: chdir: Permission denied

While trying to access crontab -e getting /var/spool/cron: chdir: Permission denied
error. Please suggest me the solution.

OS : Ubuntu 1
user : non root

Composer package hasn't been updated since the beginning of August

See dev-master commit hash in https://packagist.org/packages/cron/cron

Event reporters

I would consider converting the reporters to an event-driven logic. That would allow other tasks (like logging). What do you think?

Split from #18

ShellJob->setCommand() fails

Hi, I got and error:

'Passing a command as string when creating a "Symfony\Component\Process\Process" instance is deprecated since Symfony 4.2, pass it as an array of its arguments instead, or use the "Process::fromShellCommandline()" constructor if you need features provided by the shell'

#0 error_handler()
#1 trigger_error() called at [../vendor/symfony/process/Process.php:147]
#2 Symfony\Component\Process\Process->__construct() called at [../vendor/cron/cron/src/Job/ShellJob.php:30]

Fixed it with replace $this->process = new Process($command); to $this->process = Process::fromShellCommandline($command); in Cron\Job\ShellJob

[Feature Request] Async task

According to this article https://tomasvotruba.com/blog/2018/02/05/how-to-run-symfony-processes-asynchronously/
We can run all cron task command once, and wait until they are finished.
It will be faster if cron/cron can do it.

Remove interface suffix

This is something that I asked in case of many-many libraries with fear, because I don't like messing with authors personal preferences, but in most cases people welcomed my proposal. Interface suffixes is not PHP specific, unfortunately it is present in many other languages as well.

I usually link Mathias Verraes's blog post about this topic because he lists every argument against interface suffixes.

http://verraes.net/2013/09/sensible-interfaces/

My opinion is that it makes the library more readable from a programmer point of view. The lazy ones, how doesn't care about reading source code (and neither docs in most cases), just want to use it would say otherwise.

Split from #18

Run Root application on boot without password.

Good day, i'm trying to run CORECTRL during boot without success.

Drop support for php5.3 and php5.4

i gave this syntax for cron "17 17 18 2 5" but didnt execute my fucntion at that time, but "* * * * *" this one is working

var CronJob = require("cron").CronJob;

const SendEmail = (payload) => {
console.log("SENDING EMAIL", payload);
};

const ScheduleCronJob = (payload, cronTime) => {
console.log("ScheduleCronJob.........", cronTime);
const job = new CronJob(cronTime, () => {
console.log("You will see this message every second");
SendEmail(payload);
job.stop();
});
return job;
};
const payload = { name: "sarath" };
const job = ScheduleCronJob(payload, "17 17 18 2 5");
job.start();

what it does is to execute the function and stop it

Question: Removing & Adding Jobs

I'm very interested in using this library to schedule jobs for my job processing library. However, I had three very important questions.

1. Consider the following:

The command, $cron->run();, is running in the background using Cron.

Question:
If this is the case then can you add a job to Cron from a different file? Such as having another class add a job using the following code:

$job1 = new \Cron\Job\ShellJob();
$job1->setCommand('ls -la /path/to/folder');
$job1->setSchedule(new \Cron\Schedule\CrontabSchedule('*/5 * * * *'));

2. Consider the following:

Environment is same as question 1.

Question:
If there is a job added to execute every 1 minute, how would one remove the job from the execution list?

3. If you wanted to run a worker to execute the library in the background every 5 seconds, is the following code sufficient enough?

<?php

require_once(__DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php');

$cron = new \Cron\Cron();
$cron->setExecutor(new \Cron\Executor\Executor());
$cron->setResolver($resolver);

$cron->run();

Thank you in advanced for all your help!

Create schema builder

Create a builder to create a schema in a readable way.

$builder
  ->setDayOfWeek(1)
  ->getSchema();

Separate spec and integration tests

PHPUnit is great, but spec testing is simply better to make sure your code behaves exactly you want. So I usually suggest writting spec tests for code (where possible). In a builder like context (like this is) it is absolutely possible. Looking at the external dependencies, mocking is also possible.

Split from #18

Complete report handing

Reports hold references to the started processes.

A CronReport is returned and has the option to check if the Job is still running. This add the ability for the users to wait for the jobs to finish.

Migrate to new array syntax.

Use of \DateTimeInterface instead of \DateTime

Use of \DateTimeInterface instead of \DateTime in CrontabSchedule::valid(), as the date to evaluate might not be a \DateTime object.
besides it complies with POO best pratices.

Docker support

Hello,
I used your code example in a CentOS container, and in a Debian one, but for an unknown reason, it doesn't work.
I just wrote a command like that before adding it to crontab :

$ php exampleCron.php

But it works for my physical system, any ideas ?

CrontabSchedule constructor argument type

Weekday "7" not accepted

I try to use "Sunday" as weekday "7" but this isn't accepted. According to the documentation this is a valid value but an exception is thrown.
What is correct? The documentation or the exception?

psr4

Update the project to follow psr4.

Extract schema validation

Extract the schema validation to a separate component. This way other tools can validate a schema received from third party sources.

Dependency Dashboard

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These are blocked by an existing closed PR and will not be recreated unless you click a checkbox below.

• chore(deps): update dependency phpunit/phpunit to v11
• fix(deps): update dependency symfony/process to v7

Detected dependencies

composer

composer.json

• php ^8.0
• symfony/process ^4.0|^5.0|^6.0
• phpunit/phpunit ^10.0

github-actions

.github/workflows/ci.yaml

• actions/checkout v4
• php-actions/composer v6
• php-actions/phpunit v3

.github/workflows/stale.yaml

• actions/stale v9

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How to get generated report for job?

I'l tried get report by resolver, as

        foreach ($cron->getResolver()->resolve() as $res) {
            print_r($res->createReport()->getEndTime());
        }

but report is empty

Need to wait for processes to stop (call job->wait())

I tried the example of the Readme, and I've found that the main thread should wait for its children to finish, because if not, the children get killed at the end of the parent.

I've done a workaround extending the ShellJob class to wait them:

class FixShellJob extends \Cron\Job\ShellJob
{
    public function run(\Cron\Report\JobReport $report)
    {
        $this->report = $report;
        $report->setStartTime(microtime(true));
        $process = $this->getProcess();
        $process->start(function ($type, $buffer) use ($report) {
            if (Process::ERR === $type) {
                $report->addError($buffer);
            } else {
                $report->addOutput($buffer);
            }
        });
        // FIXME this is necessary to not be killed when parent thread ends
        $process->wait();
    }
}

$job1 = new FixShellJob();
$job1->setCommand('touch /tmp/test');
$job1->setSchedule(new \Cron\Schedule\CrontabSchedule('* * * * *'));

In the Symfony Process doc it mentions that when running asynchronously, you can do more stuff, but you should wait for the children to finish before finishing the parent: http://symfony.com/doc/current/components/process.html#running-processes-asynchronously

Unable to use full Process constructor.

Hi

Any reason why your class ShellJob->setCommand() does not mirror the constructor for Symfony\Component\Process?

Thank you

Cron does not always start job with pattern * * * * *

If I add ShellJob where setSchedule() is set to run every minute, the job is sometimes started every 2 or even once every 5 minutes.

I do not know if this information is enough, if I have questions, I will be happy to answer them.

PS.
It looks as if jobs were run randomly between 1 - 10 minutes.

PS2.
After further checking, it follows that not only in this case, not every job is started, it happens so regardless of what setting.

Extract schema validation to different class

Add job queue plugin (async executor)

In some cases long running tasks can overlap. This is my biggest problem with most cron runners. In these cases a queue would be a good choice, where only one job is executed at a time and the others wait for it (and are not getting lost)

Of course this should be plugin, not part of the main package.

Split from #18

Teste

Teste

My script does not work

I'm using "cron/cron": "1.0.5".
I wrote the following code inside a script callable by cli:

        $job1 = new \Cron\Job\ShellJob();
        $job1->setCommand('touch myfile');
        $job1->setSchedule(new \Cron\Schedule\CrontabSchedule('* * * * *'));

        $resolver = new \Cron\Resolver\ArrayResolver();
        $resolver->addJob($job1);

        $cron = new \Cron\Cron();
        $cron->setExecutor(new \Cron\Executor\Executor());
        $cron->setResolver($resolver);

        $report = $cron->run();

I run this script in cli (also with root user) and nothing seems to happened (I expect to see myfile).

So I decided to dump the job output

foreach ($report->getReports() as $jobReport) {
     var_dump($jobReport->isSuccessful(), $jobReport->getOutput());
}

and the result of this dump is:

NULL
array(0) {
}

I don't think to do something wrong, also because I copied and pasted the example in the doc.

Have you any idea about my issue?

Support for Symfony 4

will it work or require some work?

Add lowest dependecies tests.

Cron and the time zone

Hello,
Is it possible to set the time zone against which the cron pattern will be checked?
If not, will it be added in subsequent versions?

For example to be possible set some like this:
5 2 3 * * TZ="America/New_York" /do/command > /dev/null 2>&1

Thanks

Php requirements

Is really PHP 5.5.0 or above required?

Use Michael Dowling's Cron expression engine

I can't really say anything about it. Are there any particular reasons why you implemented your own pattern matcher?

Split from #18

Improvement ideas

I was recently developping a cron package just like yours. I usually implement everything that I need and look around afterwards and see how existing implementations compare to that.

Your library and my needs (what I have done so far) are pretty much the same, but there are a few differences, so I wanted to reach you out and ask if you are open to my suggestions. If yes, I am happy to provide a PR with all the changes.

Actually most of them contains some workflow/package quality related concerns.

Use Michael Dowling's Cron expression engine

I can't really say anything about it. Are there any particular reasons why you implemented your own pattern matcher?

Remove interface suffix

This is something that I asked in case of many-many libraries with fear, because I don't like messing with authors personal preferences, but in most cases people welcomed my proposal. Interface suffixes is not PHP specific, unfortunately it is present in many other languages as well.

I usually link Mathias Verraes's blog post about this topic because he lists every argument against interface suffixes.

http://verraes.net/2013/09/sensible-interfaces/

My opinion is that it makes the library more readable from a programmer point of view. The lazy ones, how doesn't care about reading source code (and neither docs in most cases), just want to use it would say otherwise.

Separate spec and integration tests

PHPUnit is great, but spec testing is simply better to make sure your code behaves exactly you want. So I usually suggest writting spec tests for code (where possible). In a builder like context (like this is) it is absolutely possible. Looking at the external dependencies, mocking is also possible.

Add job queue plugin (async executor)

In some cases long running tasks can overlap. This is my biggest problem with most cron runners. In these cases a queue would be a good choice, where only one job is executed at a time and the others wait for it (and are not getting lost)

Of course this should be plugin, not part of the main package.

Extract shell job to a separate package

It is always a good idea in case of pluggable systems like this, to extract as many components as possible, so that the main package can provide a stable contract with as less changing part (aka. interfaces, code that is possibly not changing, like exceptions, main entry points for plugins, etc) as possible.

Event reporters

I would consider converting the reporters to an event-driven logic. That would allow other tasks (like logging). What do you think?

I think that all the point above improves the project's general quality. What do you think?

Default Executor.

Set Executor() as default executor if no specific executor has been set.

This makes the following line of code redundant in most cases (but a developer still has the option to use a different executor if they want): https://github.com/Cron/Symfony-Bundle/blob/master/Command/CronRunCommand.php#L46

Create a way to trigger other php functions

Add a PhpJob to trigger function calls. These calls should be executed in a different thread so when the main script finishes, the called function can keep running.

@TjorvenB @RustiSub @bdaenen Any ideas or suggestions?

Provide a solution to output logging

The job in the example captures it's output to it's own logfile. This is something that could/should be handled by the library.

Add an optional per job LogHandler and a global Cron LogHandler. All output should be logged to the LogHandler.

Note: Unless I missed something this means the script keeps running until all jobs finish.

Bug - minute pattern matching is triggering seconds as well

In this line - https://github.com/Cron/Cron/blob/master/src/Cron/Schedule/CrontabSchedule.php#L90 - we can the an OR match on either the minute or the second.
Meaning, if I have the following scheduling pattern:
*/5 * * * *
so I want it to run every 5 minutes, and I trigger the main cron every minute (in the crontab file) then it'll run every minute, as the second 00 (every minute) will always trigger the minute pattern.

Issue or Question: how to know a cron is currently running

I set my cronJobs during the initialization of the app (one has to go to myapp/install)

I would like to know: how can I be sure that the cronJob has been set and is running, in case someone goes again to myapp/install ?

sudo -u php -H crontab -l 

is empty....