Cron for Windows Using PHP

You can easily create your own PHP cron-like script for Windows to emulate the functionality of Linux. The basic gist of it is you create a database table (or you can simply create a text file) that will hold the information about the application to execute- i.e. command, switch, executed flag column, date, & duration. I propose a 2 script solution: cron.php & cron_exec.php.

Cron.php would basically just call cron_exec.php every designated X seconds (or minutes, e.g.):

  



$dir = "c:php"; 
$cmd = "c:phpphp -q " . $dir . "" . 'cron_exec.php'; 
$interval = 10; 
do { $output = shell_exec($cmd); 
    $cur_time_str = date("F d, Y t h:i A"); 
    echo "$cur_time_str: $outputnn"; 
    write_log(); 
    sleep($interval); 
} while (TRUE) ;


function write_log() { 
    global $dir, $output, $cur_time_str; 
    $log_file = $dir . "logscron" . date("Ymd") . '.log'; 
    $fp = fopen($log_file, 'a'); fwrite($fp, $cur_time_str . "n" . $output . "n");
    fclose($fp); 
} 
?>

And here is the code for cron_exec.php:


<php 
//cron script that executes commands 

$dir = "c:\\php"; $lock_file = $dir . "" . 'cron_exec.lock'; 
if (file_exists($lock_file)){ die("Error: cron_exec.lock exists.n"); } 
$fp = fopen($lock_file, 'w'); 
$result = fwrite($fp, 'cron_exec.php is running'); 
fclose($fp); 

mysql_pconnect($host, $user_name, $password); 
$q = "select min(cqid) from command_queue where executed != 'Y'"; 
if (!$result = mysql_query($q)){ 
    unlink($lock_file); 
    die(mysql_error() . " SQL: $q"); 
} 

list($cqid) = mysql_fetch_row($result); 

if (mysql_num_rows($result) == 0 || !$cqid){ 
    unlink($lock_file); 
    die("Nothing to be executed."); 
} 

$q = "select * from command_queue where cqid = $cqid"; 
if (!$result = mysql_query($q)){ 
    unlink($lock_file); 
    die(mysql_error() . " SQL: $q"); } 
    $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); 
    $cmd = "c:\\php\php -q " . $row['command'] . ' ' . @$row['add_switch']; 
    $s_time = get_microtime(); 
    $output = shell_exec($cmd); 
    $e_time = get_microtime(); 
    $duration = sprintf("%01.2f", $e_time - $s_time); 
    $q = "update command_queue set executed = 'Y', duration = '$duration', date = sysdate() where cqid = $cqid"; 
    if (!$result = mysql_query($q)){ 
        unlink($lock_file);     
        die(mysql_error() . " SQL: $q"); 
    } 
    echo "Executed $cmd, output: $output\n"; 
    unlink($lock_file); 
?>

The MySQL table would have the following structure:

+------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type             | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| cqid       | int(10) unsigned |      | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| command    | char(32)         | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| add_switch | char(8)          | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| executed   | char(1)          | YES  |     | N       |                |
| date       | datetime         | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| duration   | char(32)         | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

I don't have the code for a front-end to edit the table because I use MysqlCC to edit it, but you can easily craft a PHP-based form to add/edit/delete jobs. Or you can simply save the tasks into a text file, and edit via notepad.