Run PHP script every 5 second using Bash and Cron Job

Last updated on April 6th, 2017 at 12:32 pm

In this post i will explain you how to run PHP file every 5 second in background using Shell script and Cron job. If you have your own VPS you can test it. There are lots of information about Bash script and Cron job on web so i am not going to copy that. Without wasting any time we create our script and run follow below step to start creating script.

Step 1. Login to your VPS using terminal or putty.

Step 2. After logged successfully go to location where you want to create PHP file and create file and open file using terminal as shown below 

cd /var/www/html/
nano script.php

Run PHP script every 5 second using Bash and Cron Job

i am using nano editor for editing file, now paste below code you want to execute for this sample i put text in it. 

<?php
echo "I am running";
?>

Run php file using cron job every second

after this we need to set permission for this file to execute properly

chmod +x script.php

Step 3. Now we can create our Bash script file to run script.php file after 5 sec interval

create new bash file using nano editor

nano script.sh

and after that paste bellow code

Run PHP script every 5 second using Bash and Cron Job 

#!/bin/bash
while true; do
    begin=`date +%s`
    php /var/www/html/script.php
    end=`date +%s`
    if [ $(($end - $begin)) -lt 5 ]; then
        sleep $(($begin + 5 - $end))
    fi
done

Now check your script file if its executable or not using below command

ls -la script.sh

Run PHP script every 5 second using Bash and Cron Job

if its show white color its mean this file is not executable you need to change permission for this file using below command

chmod +x script.sh

Now rerun above command to check if its turn to green its mean it is executable.

Run PHP script every 5 second using Bash and Cron Job

Now run this Bash file using this command

./script.sh

If you did not miss any step your script start running.

Run cron job every second

Step 4. Now we need to run this Bash script using cron so it start automatically and complete our task. To setup cron job you need to run below command in terminal

crontab -e

Now at the end of file add below command to run Bash file

* * * * *  /var/www/html/script.sh >> /var/www/html/log

Run PHP script every 5 second using Bash and Cron Job

I am creating log file so whenever this cron run it enter output to log file. Save your file and that’s it. Hope this help you. 🙂