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Specify a Cron Job to Use a Specific phpini File

Summary

This article will explain how to set a Cron Job to use a specific php.ini file. If you need a different explanation on Cron Jobs, please refer to this list of Cron Job articles:

Cron Job Basics
Setup or Remove a Cron Job
Crons Running at Specific Date and Time
Specify a Cron Job to use a Specific php.ini File
Cron Jobs with PHP and other File Types

Some scripts executed with a Cron Job requires a specific php.ini file to be used.

When executing a PHP script from a Cron Job (or via the command line), you can use a custom php.ini file. The most common situation where a custom php.ini file is needed is when a user's code requires access to something such as Zend Optimizer, which is specified in the php.ini file.

Specifying the php.ini File

To specify an alternate php.ini file, you'll need to use the -c flag in your PHP command line.

For example:

php -c /home/username/public_html/php.ini /home/username/public_html/myscript.php

In this instance, /home/username/public_html/php.ini is the full path to the php.ini file you'd like to use and /home/username/public_html/myscript.php is the full path to the php script you'd like to run. Using your actual username, change the path to the php.ini and the file you intend to run accordingly

Note: Your home directory may be home1, home2, home3, etc.

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