Cron

The Moodle 'cron' process is a PHP script (part of the standard Moodle installation) that must be run regularly in the background. The Moodle cron script runs different tasks at differently scheduled intervals.

IMPORTANT: Do not skip setting up the cron process on your server for your Moodle. Your site will not work properly without it

A special program (typically called - not surprisingly - 'cron') is used to run the Moodle cron script at a regular interval. The Moodle cron script runs tasks include sending mail, updating Moodle reports, RSS feeds, activity completions, posting forum messages and other tasks. Since different tasks have different schedules, not every task will run in Moodle when the cron script is triggered.

The cron program (that runs the Moodle script) is a core part of Unix based systems (including Linux and OSX) being used to run all manner of time-dependent services. On Windows a special program will usually need to be installed. On shared hosting, you should find the documentation (or ask support) how cron is configured.

Essentially, the task involves adding a single command to the list of cron activities on your system. On Unix based systems this list is a file called a 'crontab' which all users have.

General discussion

See the later sections for your server type; this section contains some general background information.

There are essentially two steps to implementing cron:

identifying the correct command to run
finding the right place on your system to put the command

Working out the Moodle cron command

Moodle has two different ways to deploy cron which use different scripts within the Moodle install. These are as follows...

The CLI (command line interpreter) script. This will be at the path /path/to/moodle/admin/cli/cron.php. If in doubt, this is the correct script to use. This needs to be run by a 'PHP CLI' program on your computer. So the final command may look something like /usr/bin/php /path/to/moodle/admin/cli/cron.php. You can (and should) try this on your command line to see if it works.
The web based script. This needs to be run from a web browser and will be accessed via a web url something like http://your.moodle.site/admin/cron.php. You can find command line based web browser (e.g. wget) so the final command may look like /usr/bin/wget http://your.moodle.site/admin/cron.php. This has the advantage that it can be run from *anywhere*. If you can't get cron to work on your machine it can be run somewhere else.

Finding the right place to put the command

This really does depend on the system you are using and you should find and read the documentation for your platform or hosting. In most cases getting the Moodle cron to run consists of establishing the correct command (above) and then adding it, and the time to run the command, to some sort of file. This might be either through a specific user interface or by editing the file directly.

If using the CLI version you also need to make sure that the cron process is run as the correct user. This is not an issue with the web version.

Example... installing cron on Ubuntu/Debian Linux. Assuming logged in as root..

use the crontab command to open a crontab editor window for the www-data user. This is the user that Apache (the web server) runs as on Debian based systems

$ crontab -u www-data -e

This will open an editor window. To run the cli cron script every 15 minutes, add the line:

*/15 * * * * /usr/bin/php  /path/to/moodle/admin/cli/cron.php >/dev/null

NOTE: the final >/dev/null sends all the output to the 'bin' and stops you getting an email every 15 minutes.

Setting up cron on your system

Choose the information for your server type:

Cron with Unix or Linux- Cron services on various UNIX and Linux flavored operating systems.
Cron with Windows OS - Cron services in Windows
Apple OSX - use the built-in 'crontab' service which is exactly the same as Cron with Unix or Linux. However, you might want to do it the 'Apple way' using launchd - see Cron with MAC OS X
Cron with web hosting services- Cron services in various web hosting examples.

Here are some more instructions for specific hosts (please check that these are up to date):

Cron on 1and1 shared servers

Cron settings in Moodle

There are settings within Moodle that control aspects of cron operation:

Cron settings - Moodle cron process password and CLI settings

Remote cron

Using the 'web based' version of cron it is perfectly ok to place the cron process on a different machine to the Moodle server. For example, the cron service on a Unix server can invoke the cron web 'page' on a Windows based Moodle server.

Documentation