Run custom PHP file via Cron job

Question

I am after taking over a Magento 2 site from another developer. Once a day they pointed their browser to a PHP script in the root directory that would create/update certain products.

Instead of entering that address each day into the browser I wanted to use a Cron job, however, when I set up the Cron job it will email me errors like:

Warning: fopen(pub/media/Logs/time.txt): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /public_html/file.php on line 22

and the script won't work. It does work and find that file when I enter the file path in the browser.

Why does it work with the browser but not with a cron job?

Answer 1

Sounds like a file permission issue, if the file definitely exists. Try to set it on 777 and test it again. If it works, modify the permissions to your needs.

You should consider to move the logs to var/logs. Also if you can't refactor the script into Magento code base, at least deny execution from the browser. Otherwise everybody is able to start the script.

Answer 2

Is the user under you execute the cron task and the webserver user the same? It sounds like a permission related issue.

Answer 3

The best approach would be to add cronjob under a module. Check this devdoc article here.