systemd timer

If systemd is installed on the system, a systemd timer could be an alternative to a cronjob.

This approach requires two files: myappcron.service and myappcron.timer. Create these two files in /etc/systemd/system/.

myappcron.service should look like this:

[Unit]
Description=myapp cron.php job

[Service]
User=www-data
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php -f /var/www/myapp/cron.php

[Install]
WantedBy=basic.target

Replace the user www-data with the user of your http server and /var/www/myapp/cron.php with the location of cron.php in your nextcloud directory.

myappcron.timer should look like this:

[Unit]
Description=Run myapp cron.php every 5 minutes

[Timer]
OnBootSec=5min
OnUnitActiveSec=5min
Unit=myappcron.service

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

The important parts in the timer-unit are OnBootSec and OnUnitActiveSec. OnBootSec will start the timer 5 minutes after boot, otherwise you would have to start it manually after every boot. OnUnitActiveSec will set a 5 minute timer after the service-unit was last activated.

Now all that is left is to start and enable the timer by running this command:

# systemctl enable --now myappcron.timer

When the option –now is used with enable, the resp. unit will also be started.