Running a script every so often but not triggered by the user?

[Electroman]

How would you go about running a script every 4 minutes say....I'm wanting my app to send a email out and if its not been dealt with within 10minutes (approx) I want another email to be sent, this should repeat untill it has been dealt with.So is there a way to have a script keep running? I suppose I could do this by having it make a page which uses Javascript to refresh the page every 4 minuts but I'd prefer it if I could do it without a computer needing to have a page open like that.

[visualAd]

I know how to do this on Linux but not sure about Windows. In Linux a process called cron is responsible for schedualing jobs, you will need shell access from your web host then at the command prompt type:

  # crontab - e

In the editor window to run a script ever 4 minutes enter the following and save the file (it should say crontab installed after saving):
*/4 * * * * /path/to/php/script.php

Have a look here for a full explanation of the syntax of this file.

Make sure you enter the following line at the top of the script:

#!/path/to/php/cgi

[Electroman]

I know how to do this on Linux but not sure about Windows. In Linux a process called cron is responsible for schedualing jobs, you will need shell access from your web host then at the command prompt type:

  # crontab - e

In the editor window to run a script ever 4 minutes enter the following and save the file (it should say crontab installed after saving):
*/4 * * * * /path/to/php/script.php

Have a look here for a full explanation of the syntax of this file.

Make sure you enter the following line at the top of the script:

#!/path/to/php/cgi -f

Thanx, yea my server lets me run CronTabs, has a little control panel for it but I guess I'll be able to figure out how it works .