How to write this simple cronjob in Linux (Debian)?

I need assistance in getting a cronjob to run properly in Linux (Debian). (This is my first one).

I need a file to "run" once per hour a set number of times. I got this far:

crontab -e

no crontab for root - using an empty one

edited crontab file: 0 2-21 * * * /www/file.php

crontab: installing new crontab

This was designed to make the cronjob run beginning at 2am (or 200 hrs) and to run each hour on the hour until 2100 hrs. I checked the database to see if the file did its thing at 2:10 and nothing had changed so it clearly didn't run.

I'm fairly new to Linux so there's probably a way to see what happened but I'm really wondering whether I wrote the Cronjob instruction correctly before I get into diagnosing.

From serverfault $pageUsers[$entry.posts[0].author].name

• Your crontab looks completely fine to me.

  Are you sure that you have the appropriate execute bits set and the proper shebang so that the root can execute the file /www/file.php?

  From $pageUsers[$post.author].name

• Regarding this:

  42 3-22 * * * /var/www/apache2-default/getUserDetails.php?friend=14522828

  You can't put the ? there. It will consider the ? along with the rest after it as part of the file name from the file system (it's looking for the file getUserDetails.php?friend=14522828 at /var/www/apache2-default). What you can do is:

  42 3-22 * * * /usr/bin/php-cgi /var/www/apache2-default/getUserDetails.php friend=14522828
  

  (assuming the php-cgi executable is in /usr/bin, change accordingly if php is installed elsewhere)

  Alternatively, you could edit getUserDetails.php and have the following line at the very top of the file:

  #!/usr/bin/php-cgi
  <?php
  [your code goes here]
  ...
  

  Then make sure getUserDetails.php is executable by root (check via ls -l, assign via chmod) and then have the following schedule in cron:

  42 3-22 * * * /var/www/apache2-default/getUserDetails.php friend=14522828
  

  After that, you can monitor /var/log/cron for commands being run by crond. And then you can check root's mail (mail command) for the program output or errors encountered.

  ---

  if on the other hand what you really had in your crontab was

  0 2-21 * * * /www/file.php
  

  Then I'm stumpped. The entry does look fine so what you need to make sure is that you can run the file manually in the command line (enter /www/file.php in the shell). Add the execute bits for it if not executable.

  After that, check /var/log/cron as well as root's mail for both commands being executed and errors.

  From Vin-G