How to check if a cron job is running or not?

Question

I added the following command in crontab -e:

15 * * * * php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php

I need to run testcron.php every 15 minutes; for testing purposes I used the following PHP code in testcron.php:

<?php 
echo "test";

---

15 * * * * /usr/bin/php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php >> /home/rizwan/cron.out 

this was working .but i have one php script,for adding customers from magento to ERP,when i run script manually,it asks for authorization,after accepting it creates customers into ERP from magento,I need whenever i added customer in magento after 5 or 10 mins this script should run and add the customer to ERP.how this can be done ?,If any one have any idea,please help ?

Answer 1

First you have to be sure to run the executable by complete path. you can get the path using which command

$ which php
/usr/bin/php

Now the entry in crontab must be:

15 * * * * /usr/bin/php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php

Now To check the output you can use redirection trick, so redirect the output to some file and then you can check the file to see the result. So the entry would be:

15 * * * * /usr/bin/php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php >> /home/rizwan/cron.out

Now you can check the file in your home named cron.out and see if your cron run or not.

Answer 2

In PHP you you can use either the backtick operator or the shell_exec() function to run a command in the system's default shell; you could run pgrep 'php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php' and evaluate its return code; either this:

<?php
    if(!($PID = `pgrep 'php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php'`))
        echo 'Process is running with PID ' . $PID . '.';
?>

Or this:

<?php
    if(!($PID = shell_exec("pgrep 'php /home/rizwan/PHP-workspace/mgstore/testcron.php'")))
        echo 'Process is running with PID ' . $PID . '.';
?>