The very best way to setup cron jobs for your scheduled tasks

Note: These commands will not work on Windows Hosting or VPS packages with Plesk.

The commands provided below are examples of typical script locations. The bold sections within each command will need to be replaced with your cPanel username and your script name.

Note: You may need to adjust /home/ to /home#/ depending on the home directory on which your account resides. To view the home directory for your account simply view the stats column on the main cPanel page of your account, and look for the home directory.

PHP

Command to run a PHP 5.5 cron job:

/opt/php55/bin/php /home/username/public_html/cron.php

Command to run a PHP 5.4 cron job:

/opt/php54/bin/php /home/username/public_html/cron.php

Command to run a PHP 5.3 cron job:

/opt/php53/bin/php /home/username/public_html/cron.php

Command to run a PHP 5.2 cron job:

/opt/php52/bin/php /home/username/public_html/cron.php

Optional flags are sometimes required for a PHP cron job:

php -q /home/username/public_html/cron.php

Command to use a specific php.ini file:

php -c /home/username/public_html/php.ini /home/username/public_html/myscript.php

Command to GET a remote file:

/usr/bin/GET http://www.example.com/file.php

Perl

Command to run a CGI cron job:

perl /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin/file.pl

SSH

Command to run a code script cron job:

/bin/sh /home/username/public_html/file.sh

MySQL

Note: It is a good practice to not type your password out in the follow commands but to simply use the -p flag alone and have the system prompt you for the password. This way your password stays secure and never exists on the server as plain text.

Command to import a database:

mysql -u mysql_user -ppassword database_name < backup.sql

Command to export a database:

mysqldump -u mysql_user -ppassword database_name > backup.sql