How to determine if a PHP file is loaded via cron/

Question

I need to determine whether the PHP file is being loaded via cron or command line within the code. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can check the PHP_SAPI constant to check if the CLI interpreter is being used:

$is_cli= PHP_SAPI == 'cli';

Answer 2

The most reliable and exhaustive way to check where your script is run known to me is

php_sapi_name()

Neither this nor any of the other listed methods listed here, however, will give you a distinction between "normal" CLI mode, and a cron call. gahooa's command line argument idea is probably the best and most reliable solution.

Answer 3

This is one simple way. Certain elements of the $_SERVER array are only set if called from HTTP. Thus you can:

if(!isset($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'])){
 // from cron or command line
}else{
 // from HTTP
}

Others include: $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']

Answer 4

If you have control over the cron or command, have you considered passing a command-line argument, and reading it with $_SERVER['argv'][0]?

* * * * *   /usr/bin/php /path/to/script --cron

In the script:

<?php
if(isset($_SERVER['argv'][0]) and $_SERVER['argv'][0] == '--cron')
   $I_AM_CRON = true;
else
   $I_AM_CRON = false;