Crunz

Install a cron job once and for all, manage the rest from the code.

Crunz is a framework-agnostic package to schedule periodic tasks (cron jobs) in PHP using a fluent API.

Crunz is capable of executing any kind of executable command as well as PHP closures.

Installation

To install it:

composer require kwstanislav/crunz

If the installation is successful, a command-line utility named crunz is symlinked to vendor/bin directory of your project.

How It Works?

The idea is very simple: instead of a installing cron jobs in a crontab file, we define them in one or several PHP files, by using the Crunz interface.

Here's a basic example:

<?php
// tasks/backupTasks.php

use Crunz\Schedule;

$schedule = new Schedule();
$schedule->run('cp project project-bk')       
         ->daily();

return $schedule;

To run the tasks, you only need to install an ordinary cron job (a crontab entry) which runs every minute, and delegates the responsibility to Crunz' event runner:

* * * * * /project/vendor/bin/crunz schedule:run

The command schedule:run is responsible for collecting all the PHP task files and run the tasks which are due.

Task Files

Task files resemble crontab files. Just like crontab files they can contain one or more tasks.

Normally we create our task files in tasks/ directory within the project's root directory.

By default, Crunz assumes all the task files reside in tasks/ directory within the project's root directory.

There are two ways to specify the source directory: 1) Configuration file 2) As a parameter to the event runner command.

We can explicitly set the source path by passing it to the event runner as a parameter:

* * * * * /project/vendor/bin/crunz schedule:run /path/to/tasks/directory

Creating a Simple Task

In the terminal, change the directory to your project's root directory and run the following commands:

mkdir tasks && cd tasks
nano GeneralTasks.php

Then, add a task as below:

<?php
// tasks/FirstTasks.php

use Crunz\Schedule;

$schedule = new Schedule();

$schedule->run('cp project project-bk')       
         ->daily()
         ->description('Create a backup of the project directory.');

// ...

// IMPORTANT: You must return the schedule object
return $schedule; 

There are some conventions for creating a task file, which you need to follow. First of all, the filename should end with Tasks.php unless we change this via the configuration settings.

In addition to that, we must return the instance of Schedule class at the end of each file, otherwise, all the tasks inside the file will be skipped by the event runner.

Since Crunz scans the tasks directory recursively, we can either put all the tasks in one file or across different files (or directories) based on their usage. This behavior helps us have a well organized tasks directory.

The Command

We can run any command or script by using run(). This method accepts two arguments: the command to be executed, and the command options (as an associative array) if there's any.

Normal Command or Script

<?php
use Crunz\Schedule;

$schedule = new Schedule();

$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php backup.php', ['--destination' => 'path/to/destination'])       
         ->everyMinute()
         ->description('Copying the project directory');
         
return $schedule;

In the above example, --destination is an option supported by backup.php script.

Closures

We can also write a closure to instead of a command:

<?php
use Crunz\Schedule;

$schedule = new Schedule();

$x = 12;
$schedule->run(function() use ($x) { 
   // Do some cool stuff in here 
})       
->everyMinute()
->description('Copying the project directory');
         
return $schedule;

Frequency of Execution

There are a variety of ways to specify when and how often a task should run. We can combine these methods together to get our desired frequencies.

Units of Time

There are a group of methods which specify a unit of time (bigger than minute) as frequency. They usually end with ly suffix, as in hourly(), daily(), weekly, monthly(), quarterly(), and yearly .

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php backup.php')       
         ->daily();
// ...

The above task will run daily at midnight.

Here's another one, which runs on the first day of each month.

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->monthly();
// ...

All the events scheduled with this set of methods happen at the beginning of that time unit. For example weekly() will run the event on Sundays, and monthly() will run it on the first day of each month.

Dynamic Methods

Dynamic methods give us a wide variety of frequency options on the fly. We just need to follow this pattern:

every[NumberInCamelCaseWords]Minute|Hour|Day|Months?

As we can see, the method should start with the word every, followed by a number in camel-case words, ending with one of these units of time: minute, hour, day, and month.

The s at the end is optional and it's just used for grammar's sake.

With that said, the following methods are valid:

• everyFiveMinutes()
• everyMinute()
• everyTwelveHours()
• everyMonth
• everySixMonths()
• everyFifteenDays()
• everyFiveHundredThirtySevenMinutes()
• everyThreeThousandAndFiveHundredFiftyNineMinutes()
• ...

This is how it is used in a task file:

<?php
// ...

$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->everyTenDays();

$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php some_other_stuff.php')       
         ->everyThirteenMinutes();
// ...

return $schedule;

Running Events at Certain Times

To schedule one-off tasks, you may use on() method like this:

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->on('13:30 2016-03-01');
// ...

The above the task will run on the first of march 2016 at 01:30 pm.

On() accepts any date format parsed by PHP's strtotime function.

To specify the time we use at() method:

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php script.php')       
         ->daily()
         ->at('13:30');
// ...

We can use dailyAt() to get the same result:

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php script.php')       
         ->dailyAt('13:30');
// ...

If we only pass time to on() method, it will have the same effect as using at()

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->mondays()
         ->on('13:30');
         
// is the sames as
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->mondays()
         ->at('13:30');
// ...

Weekdays

Crunz also provides a set of methods which specify a certain day in the week. These methods have been designed to be used as a constraint and should not be used alone. The reason is that weekday methods just modify the Day of Week field of a cron job expression.

Consider the following example:

<?php
// Cron equivalent:  * * * * 1
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->mondays();

At first glance, the task seems to run every Monday, but since it only modifies the "day of week" field of the cron job expression, the task runs every minute on Mondays.

This is the correct way of using weekday methods:

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->everyThreeHours()
         ->mondays();
// ...

In the above task, we use mondays() as a constraint to run the task every three hours on Mondays.

Setting Individual Fields

Crunz's methods are not limited to the ready-made methods explained. We can also set individual fields to compose our custom frequencies. These methods either accept an array of values, or list arguments separated by commas:

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->minute(['1-30', 45, 55])
         ->hour('1-5', 7, 8)
         ->dayOfMonth(12, 15)
         ->month(1);

Or:

<?php
// ...
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')       
         ->minute('30')
         ->hour('13')
         ->month([1,2])
         ->dayofWeek('Mon', 'Fri', 'Sat');

// ...

The Classic Way

We can also do the scheduling the old way, just like we do in a crontab file:

<?php
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->cron('30 12 * 5-6,9 Mon,Fri');     
        

Based on our use cases, we can choose and combile the proper set of methods, which are easier to use.

Changing Directories

You can use the in() method to change directory before running a command:

<?php

// ...

$schedule->run('./deploy.sh')
         ->in('/home')
         ->weekly()
         ->sundays()
         ->at('12:30')
         ->appendOutputTo('/var/log/backup.log');

// ...

return $schedule;

Task Life Time

In a crontab entry, we can not easily specify task's lifetime (the period of time when the task is active). However, it's been made easy in Crunz:

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->from('12:30 2016-03-04')
         ->to('04:55 2016-03-10');
 //       

Or alternatively we can use between() method to get the same result:

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->between('12:30 2016-03-04', '04:55 2016-03-10');

 //       

If we don't specify the date portion, the task will be active every day but only within the specified duration:

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->between('12:30', '04:55');

 //       

The above task runs every five minutes between 12:30 pm and 4:55 pm every day.

Running Conditions

Another thing that we cannot do very easily in a traditional crontab file is to make conditions for running the tasks. This has been made easy by when() and skip() methods.

Consider the following code:

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->between('12:30 2016-03-04', '04:55 2016-03-10')
         ->when(function() {
           if ($some_condition_here) { return true; }
         });

 //       

Method when() accepts a callback, which must return TRUE for the task to run. This is really useful when we need to check our resources before performing a resource-hungry task.

We can also skip a task under certain conditions, by using skip() method. If the passed callback returns TRUE, the task will be skipped.

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->between('12:30 2016-03-04', '04:55 2016-03-10')
         ->skip(function() {
             if ($some_condition_here) { return true; }  
    });

 //       

We can use these methods several times for a single task. They are evaluated sequentially.

Configuration

There are a few configuration options provided by Crunz in YAML format. To modify the configuration settings, it is highly recommended to have our own copy of the configuration file, instead modifying the original one.

To create a copy of the configuration file, first we need to publish the configuration file:

/project/vendor/bin/crunz publish:config
The configuration file was generated successfully

As a result, a copy of the configuration file will be created within our project's root directory.

The configuration file looks like this:

# Crunz Configuration Settings

# This option defines where the task files and
# directories reside.
# The path is relative to the project's root directory,
# where the Crunz is installed (Trailing slashes will be ignored).
source: tasks

# The suffix is meant to target the task files inside the ":source" directory.
# Please note if you change this value, you need
# to make sure all the existing tasks files are renamed accordingly.
suffix: Tasks.php

# By default the errors are not logged by Crunz
# You may set the value to true for logging the errors
log_errors: false

# This is the absolute path to the errors' log file
# You need to make sure you have the required permission to write to this file though.
errors_log_file:

# By default the output is not logged as they are redirected to the
# null output.
# Set this to true if you want to keep the outputs
log_output: false

# This is the absolute path to the global output log file
# The events which have dedicated log files (defined with them), won't be
# logged to this file though.
output_log_file:

# This option determines whether the output should be emailed or not.
email_output: false

# This option determines whether the error messages should be emailed or not.
email_errors: false

# Global Swift Mailer settings
#
mailer:
    # Possible values: smtp, mail, and sendmail
    transport: smtp
    recipients:
    sender_name:
    sender_email:


# SMTP settings
#
smtp:
    host:
    port:
    username:
    password:
    encryption:

As you can see there are a few options like source which is used to specify the source tasks directory. The other options are used for error/output logging/emailing purposes.

Each time we run Crunz commands, it will look into the project's root directory to see if there's any user-modified configuration file. If the configuration file doesn't exists, it will use the one shipped with the package.

Parallelism and the Locking Mechanism

Crunz runs the scheduled events in parallel (in separate processes), so all the events which have the same frequency of execution, will run at the same time asynchronously. To achieve this, Crunz utilizes symfony/Process library for running the tasks in sub-processes.

If the execution of a task lasts until the next interval or even beyond that, we say that the same instances of a task are overlapping. In some cases, this is a not a problem, but they are times when these tasks are modifying database data or files, which might cause unexpected behaviors, or even data loss.

To prevent critical tasks from overlapping each other, Crunz provides a locking mechanism through preventOverlapping() method, which, ensures no task runs if the previous instance is already running.

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->preventOverlapping();
 //       

Keeping the Output

Cron jobs usually have outputs, which is normally emailed to the owner of the crontab file, or the user or users set by MAILTO environment variable inside the crontab file.

We can also redirect the standard output to a physical file using > or >> operators:

* * * * * /command/to/run >> /var/log/crons/cron.log

This sort of actions have been automated in Crunz. To automatically send each event's output to a log file, we can set log_output and output_log_file options in the configuration file accordingly:

# Configuration settings

## ...
log_output:      true
output_log_file: /var/log/crunz.log
## ...

This will send the events' output (if executed successfully) to /var/log/crunz.log file. However, we need to make sure we are permitted to write to the respective file.

If we need to log the outputs on an event-basis, We can use appendOutputTo() or sendOutputTo() methods like this:

<?php
//
$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->appendOutputTo('/var/log/crunz/emails.log');

 //       

Method appendOutputTo() appends the output to the specified file. To override the log file with new data after each run, we use saveOutputTo() method.

It is also possible to send the errors as emails to a group of recipents by setting email_output and mailer settings in the configuration file.

Error Handling

Crunz makes error handling easy by logging and also allowing you add a set of callbacks in case of an error.

Error Callbacks

You can set as many callbacks as needed to run in case of an error:

<?php

use Crunz\Schedule;
$schedule = new Schedule();

$schedule->add('command/to/run')
         ->everyFiveMinutes();

$schedule
->onError(function(){
   // Send mail
})
->onError(function(){
   // Do something else
});

return $schedule;

If there's an error the two defined callbacks will be executed.

Error Logging

To log the possible errors during each run, we can set log_error and error_log_file settings in the configuration file as below:

# Configuration settings

# ...
log_errors:      true
errors_log_file: /var/log/error.log
# ...

As a result, if the execution of an event is unsuccessful for some reasons, the error message is appended to the specified error log file. Each entry provides useful information including the time it happened, the event description, the executed command which caused the error, and the error message itself.

It is also possible to send the errors as emails to a group of recipents by setting email_error and mailer settings in the configuration file.

Pre-Process and Post-Process Hooks

There are times when we want to do some kind of operations before and after an event. This is possible by attaching pre-process and post-process callbacks to the respective event.

To do this, we use before() and after() on both Event and Schedule objects, meaning we can have pre and post hooks on an event-basis as well as schedule basis. The hooks bind to schedule will run before all events, and after all the events are finished.

<?php
// ...

$schedule = new Schedule();

$schedule->run('/usr/bin/php email.php')
         ->everyFiveMinutes()
         ->before(function() { 
             // Do something before the task runs
         })
         ->before(function() { 
                 // Do something else
         })
         ->after(function() {
             // After the task is run
         });
 
$schedule

->before(function () {
   // Do something before all events
})
->after(function () {
   // Do something after all events are finished
}
->before(function () {
   // Do something before all events
});

//  ...   

We might need to use these methods as many times we need by chaining them.

Post-execution callbacks are only called if the execution of the event has been successful.

Other Useful Commands

We've already used a few of crunz commands like schedule:run and publish:config.

To see all the valid options and arguments of crunz, we can run the following command:

vendor/bin/crunz --help

Listing Tasks

One of these commands is crunz schedule:list, which lists the defined tasks (in collected *.Tasks.php files) in a tabular format.

vendor/bin/crunz schedule:list

+---+---------------+-------------+--------------------+
| # | Task          | Expression  | Command to Run     |
+---+---------------+-------------+--------------------+
| 1 | Sample Task   | * * * * 1 * | command/to/execute |
+---+---------------+-------------+--------------------+

Generating Tasks

There's also a useful command named make:task, which generates a task file skeleton with all the defaults, so we won't have to write them from scratch. We can modify the output file later based on our requirements.

For example, to create a task, which runs /var/www/script.php every hour on Mondays, we run the following command:

vendor/bin/crunz make:task exampleOne --run scripts.php --in /var/www --frequency everyHour --constraint mondays
Where do you want to save the file? (Press enter for the current directory)

When we run this command, Crunz will ask about the location we want to save the file. By default, it is our source tasks directory.

As a result, the event is defined in a file named exampleOneTasks.php within the specified tasks directory.

To see if the event has been created successfully, we list the events:

crunz schedule:list

+---+------------------+-------------+----------------+
| # | Task             | Expression  | Command to Run |
+---+------------------+-------------+----------------+
| 1 | Task description | 0 * * * 1 * | scripts.php    |
+---+------------------+-------------+----------------+

To see all the options of make:task command with all the defaults, we run this:

vendor/bin/crunz make:task --help

If You Need Help

Please submit all issues and questions using GitHub issues and I will try to help you.

License

Crunz is free software distributed under the terms of the MIT license.