Hello Everyone, Hoping you might be able to help me with something

I need to make a cron job that will run a php script to reset a php based ranking system, I am using wget to run the actual php and I am sure my command works cause I have just typed it at the command line and the ranking system reset.

But the thing is the job should run every 10 minutes so I made a script placed it in /etc/cron.d and set its permissions to 755 like all of the other scripts that are in that directory, but still it will not do it.

Here is what is in the file

#MNTSL : Rerank (Every 10 minutes)
*/10 * * * * root /usr/bin/wget .....someother stuff

The wget command is not the problem cause as I have said I tested it, but it just will not run as scheduled every 10 minutes, it will never run.

Any ideas

try creating a cron job for whatever user you would normally run the wget command with, i.e. log in as that user and run:

crontab -e

then put your cron entry in there w/out the 'root' in the above line, see if that works

I had a problem very much like yours. This thread should help:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...highlight=cron

I've never seen the */10 syntax. does it work if you change it to something more traditional like:
0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /usr/bin/wget .....someother stuff
leave out the root too...
Also check mail for the user that you created the cron file for you probably have some error messages that might help.

I will try changing it to a more standard method that you suggest, I just used that cause one of the other scripts in that directory has the same format for its 10 minute run so I just thought it was ok.

Now do I have to do anything to tell cron that the script in in /etc/cron.d?
The Redhat docs just said it checks it every minute, but how can I tell?

Using */10 for every 10 minutes or */5 for every works just fine...For what it's worth.

I usually create a seperate directory that I put home made scripts in to.

If you log in as root and type this

crontab -e

*/10 * * * * /etc/cron.d/name_of_script

Where name of script is executable, and the script will contain the wget stuff.

If you want, you can just have

*/10 * * * * wget the_rest_here.

But I prefer to have things in scripts.

You could check to see if cron is running every minute by doing the following:
crontab -e
add the following line:
* * * * * date >> /tmp/cron_test.junk
wait a minute or two then check the /tmp/cron_test.junk file
--> cat /tmp/cron_test.junk
Fri Dec 12 13:35:00 MST 2003
Fri Dec 12 13:36:01 MST 2003

You also should be able to do a ps -ef | grep cron and see the crond process running...

Oh yea you might want to comment out the line with a # if you don't want to make a big file when you are done...
BTW thanks for the info about the /10 option I didn't know that one...