Taking in consideration the amount of ressources needed to build a picture with PHP, it can be wise to schedule the creation of the graphs on a periodic basis. Doing this way will prevent hanging the apache ( or whatever web server ) process. This documentation explains how to use PHP from the command line & how to schedule a task from Windows or Linux ( using crontab )


PHP can be run from the command line interface of all operating systems. Putting the php binary folder in your system path variable can be extremely wise!

To display the version of your PHP binary you can use the php -v command.

Z:\>php -v
PHP 5.2.5 (cli) (built: Nov  8 2007 23:18:51)
Copyright (c) 1997-2007 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2007 Zend Technologies

[ayashisunyday@pr-shellC ~]$ php -v
PHP 4.3.9 (cgi) (built: Feb 21 2007 06:35:52)
Copyright (c) 1997-2004 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies

To run a PHP script from the command line you can use the following syntax :

Z:\>php -q MyScript.php

You can also redirect the output of this command to a log file : To run a PHP script from the command line you can use the following syntax :

Z:\>php -q MyScript.php >messages.log

To schedule a job on linux ( assuming the crontab package is installed ) I recommand you to create a bash file starting the PHP script and a cron task running this bash file. Doing this way you'll be able to change the PHP stuff without modifying your cron job.

Create a text file called run with the following content :

/usr/local/php4/bin/php -q MyScript.php
/usr/local/php4/bin/php -q MyScript2.php

.. containing all of the PHP script you want to start. Then make this file executable :

chmod +x run

Now you can add this script in your crontab :

crontab -e

.. and put the following content :

30 04 * * * /path/to/run >>/var/log/php-scripts.log

.. and exit the text editor. The crontab will be installed on the system. You may need to restart the crontab daemon :

/etc/init.d/cron restart
 .. or ( depending on the daemon you are using )
/etc/init.d/vixie-cron restart

Using 30 04 * * * will start the job every day at 04:30. to run a scrip every ten minutes you can use 10 * * * *. To have more infos on the crontab command take a look here.


To schedule a job on windows, I recommand you to create a batch file starting the PHP script and an at task running this command file. Doing this way you'll be able to change the PHP stuff without modifying your task.

Create a text file called run.cmd with the following content :

php -q MyScript.php
php -q MyScript2.php

.. containing all of the PHP script you want to start. Now you can add this command file to your scheduled tasks :

at 20:30 /every:M,T,W,Th,F,S,Su run.cmd

This will start your task every day at 20:30. To have more infos dealing with the AT command you can take a look on this : How To Use the AT Command to Schedule Tasks.

You can also use the Windows graphical interface by going in the Control Panel & use the Scheduled task manager.