A common method for running PHP scripts from a cron job is to use a command-line program such as curl or wget. For example, the cron job runs a command similar to the following:

curl http://example.com/script.php

This command retrieves the web page, which then runs the PHP script.

However, a better way to run PHP scripts on your website from cron jobs is to use the PHP command-line interpreter. This method is just as effective and usually faster. The following command shows how to run a script using the PHP command-line interpreter:

/usr/local/bin/php -q Ksh {HOME}/public_html/script.php

The -q option enables quiet mode, preventing HTTP headers from being displayed.

If the script uses relative paths to include files, it must be called from the correct directory:

cd Ksh {HOME}/public_html/; /usr/local/bin/php -q script.php

If your script requires special configuration options, you can use a custom php.ini file:

/usr/local/bin/php -c Ksh {HOME}/php.ini Ksh {HOME}/public_html/script.php