cron - Scheduling php scripts

Question

I want to create some function to schedule php scripts,for example if i want tu run page.php at 12/12/2012 12:12 i can call

schedule_script('12/12/2012 12:12','page.php');//or by passing a time/datetime object

or for example call one script every minute

schedule_interval(60,'page.php');//every 60s=1minute

i'll may add some other function to see what script are scheduled or delete one of them.

i want this functions to work on both UNIX and WINDOWS platforms,i DO NOT want ugly solutions like executing a script on every page of the site(i want to schedule this commands when nobody is on the site) or using "buisy wait" implementations ( using sleep() on a script that checks if there are any scheduled jobs) or something that require user intervention(like write something in console or open a panel).

I found the "AT" command on MSDOS(works well on all windows)but it's very basic because it accept only time and not dates,there's a more powerful version on UNIX but i don't know how to use it(and i want a solution for both platforms).

Answer 1

There's a PHP function which lets you delay script execution till a point in time.

So let's say I have cron.php:

<?php

   // Usage:
   //    cron.php [interval|schedule] [script] [interval|stamp]
   if(!isset($argc) || count($argc)!=2)die; // security precaution

   $time=(int)$argv[3]; // just in case :)

   if($argv[1]=='schedule'){
       time_sleep_until((int)$_GET['until']);
       include_once($time);
   }elseif($argv[1]=='interval')
       while(true){ // this is actually an infinite loop (you didn't ask for an "until" date? can be arranged tho)
           usleep($time*1000); // earlier I said milliseconds: 1000msec is 1s, but this func is for microseconds: 1s = 1000000us
           include_once($argv[2]);
       }

?>

And your classes/functions file:

// Const form K2F - Are we on windows?
define('ISWIN', strpos(strtolower(php_uname()),'win')!==false &&
                strpos(strtolower(php_uname()),'darwin')===false );

// Function from K2F - runs a shell command without waiting (works on all OSes)
function run($cmd){
    ISWIN ? pclose(popen('start /B '.$cmd,'r')) : exec($cmd.' > /dev/null &');
}

script_schedule($script,$time){
    if(is_string($time))$time=strtotime($time);
    run('php -f -- schedule '.escapeshellarg($script).' '.$time);
}

script_interval($script,$mseconds){
    run('php -f -- interval '.escapeshellarg($script).' '.$mseconds);
}

It ought to work. By the way, K2F is this framework that makes your dreams come true..faster. ;). Cheers.

Edit: If you still want the parts about counting running jobs and/or deleting(stopping) them, I can help you out with it as well. Just reply to my post and we'll follow up.