PHP and Crontab

[Zimbop]

I'm using PHP compiled by Marc Liyanage at http://www.entropy.ch/ (I think it's an Apache module). It works great in every respect, however, I would like to run .php files with cron and have tried using cronnix to do this but have had no luck.

I was using the shebang line #!/usr/bin/php which has worked on virtual web hosting accounts on linux in the past.

Now, there's no "php" in /usr/bin/php only "php-config" "phpextdist" "phpize" and "phptar".

So how do I execute "test.php". Is it possible with the apache module version of PHP or does it need to be the CGI version. And where is php, if in the terminal I go "whereis sendmail" I get "/usr/sbin/sendmail", but if I do "whereis php" I get nothing!

Regards

Zimbop

[strikeman]

I compiled a standalone php executable into /usr/bin/, and my crontab uses that to run my php scripts.

[elspif]

how do I compile a stand alone php executable?

[Fahrvergnuugen]

you will either have to find the binary somewhere or compile it yourself...which can be a bit tricky. I havn't tried compiling php since 4.1 and then it was such a pita.

[elspif]

I found a binary but don't know how to run it. The file is a .gz file but won't unzip or anything. If I just run it like it is it won't go. Any hints?

Found it at www.etropy.ch where the other tutorials are under the FAQ:

>Can I also get the CGI version of PHP?"
>Yes. Here is the binary (at version 4.1.1).

With a link to http://www2.entropy.ch/download/php-cgi-4.1.1.gz

I must be doing something dumb but please let me know what

thx

[Zimbop]

put it in your home directory and then open a terminal and type:

gunzip php-cgi-4.1.1.gz

That should unzip it.

[elspif]

I did that but it tells me the file is not in gzip format. Are there other formats? Can i untar this or what? I tried most things even going into classic and using the old stuffit expander. Any tips are welcome. This is what Darwin tells me:

Welcome to Darwin!
[local:~] spif% ls
Desktop Icon? Public jbproject
Documents Library SME php-cgi-4.1.1.gz
Downloads Movies Sites
Eleven Music Temp
Fonts Pictures To Print
[local:~] spif% gunzip php-cgi-4.1.1.gz

gunzip: php-cgi-4.1.1.gz: not in gzip format
[local:~] spif%

[namaste]

One way to use cron with the module would be to put something like curl http://someurl.com/myscript.php in your shell script. I've used this often to trigger php scripts on machines that are using php as a module on both apache and IIS.