Cron jobs

Cron jobs

A cron job runs a command or script on its own schedule – for example a daily backup inside your application, sending e-mail notifications, or running the Laravel scheduler. Unlike a long-running background process (Supervisor), which runs continuously, a cron job runs, finishes and exits.

Where to find them

In https://panel.cloudweb.sk, open the hosting and go to the Development tab, Cron Jobs sub-tab. The same list is also available as a standalone "Cron Job Management" page with stats across every hosting you have access to.

Creating a cron job

1. Click Add Cron Job.
2. In the Command field, enter the full path to the command or script, for example /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php.
3. Optionally set Run In Directory – the working directory the command runs in (internally executed as cd <directory> && <command>). It defaults to the document root, /var/www/html. You can also pick it with the Browse button, which opens the hosting's directory browser.
4. Optionally fill in a Description.
5. Set the schedule – either pick one of the common presets (every minute, every 5/10/15/30 minutes, every hour, every 2/6 hours, daily, weekly, monthly) or enter a custom cron expression as five fields: minute, hour, day, month, weekday.
6. Click Add Cron Job.

You can edit a job at any time (pencil icon), enable/disable it (the Enable/Disable button), run it immediately as a test (rocket icon – Run Now), or delete it (trash icon). Every change is written to the hosting's scheduler right away.

Schedule format and minimum interval

The schedule uses the standard five-field cron format (minute, hour, day, month, weekday). Asterisks, numbers, ranges (1-5), lists (1,3,5), steps (*/5) and combinations of these (e.g. 0-30/5) are all supported, and month/weekday fields also accept name abbreviations (e.g. MON-FRI). There is no enforced minimum interval – the most frequent preset, and a valid custom expression, is "every minute" (* * * * *).

How and as which user a job runs

Jobs run in the Europe/Bratislava time zone, which is fixed for the hosting. The command runs as the same system user that PHP-FPM and Supervisor tasks run as on that hosting: if the hosting has SSH enabled, that's the site owner's user (the same one you use to log in over SSH/SFTP); without SSH it's www-data. The cron environment's PATH includes, among others, /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin, so common binaries like php or composer don't need a full path – but we recommend using one if you're unsure.

Logs and test runs

The View Logs button shows the last 100 lines from /var/log/cron.log together with the currently scheduled file's contents. Command output is written to this log automatically unless the command redirects its own output elsewhere. The Run Now button runs the exact same command (including the cd into the configured directory) immediately, as the same user the scheduled run would use, and shows the output directly in the panel.

Limits

The number of cron jobs is not capped by your plan. The command may be at most 1000 characters and must be a single line (a line break would split the schedule entry into two, so it's rejected on save). You can also try the command by hand before setting up the cron job, directly in the web terminal.