Use crontab for cron, add examples to README including typo3 scheduler

[rfay]

• Use crontab instead of putting things directly into /etc/cron.d. This makes commands run as the user instead of as root, avoiding permissions problems
• Provide TYPO3 scheduler and drupal examples

This PR can be tested with ddev get https://github.com/rfay/ddev-cron/tarball/20220721_easier_perms_cron.d

The new README is at https://github.com/drud/ddev-cron/blob/8db9f512e8c1400a0f8363d75da2bb74aaa253bf/README.md

[tyler36]

Thank you for this.

I saw the conversation on Discord and was planning on updating readme to include 'crontab'

[rfay]

I hadn't ever had any experience with the TYPO3 thing, but both TYPO3 and Drupal required extra effort because of how settings.ddev.php is only included if IS_DDEV_PROJECT, and for Drupal, also needed a trigger on DDEV_PHP_VERSION. I don't think that ddev_contrib recipe could have worked as it was, maybe I missed something.

[tyler36]

It is one of the benefits of ddev addons. We have a chance to update the process and docs based on modern (current) frameworks.

[echavaillaz]

Personally I have an error with the TYPO3 example:

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught PDOException: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection refused in /var/www/html/vendor/doctrine/dbal/lib/Doctrine/DBAL/Driver/PDOConnection.php:40

To avoid having this error, I have to make ddev ssh and then /var/www/html/vendor/bin/typo3 scheduler:run

Any idea?

[rfay]

Hi @echavaillaz - Please show the actual hooks you're using.

I used this (from the README, https://github.com/drud/ddev-cron#examples and it worked fine.

What was missing earlier was the IS_DDEV_PROJECT=true. Please remove your existing hook and use the example, and maybe do a ddev get drud/ddev-cron again. (This PR was pulled, so you can use drud/ddev-cron directly.)

hooks:
  post-start:
    - exec: printf "SHELL=/bin/bash\n* * * * * date |& tee -a /var/www/html/date.log\n* * * * * IS_DDEV_PROJECT=true /var/www/html/vendor/bin/typo3 scheduler:run -vv |& tee -a /var/www/html/scheduler-log.txt\n" | crontab

As explained in the README (updated), you can experiment using the crontab command directly until you have it going.

[echavaillaz]

Hi, thanks for the answer.

I try what you purpose but the error is still the same for me...

Thanks

[echavaillaz]

I think the problem is that the cron don't take care of the web_environment env vars.
The env vars that are taken in account come from my main .env file and not from the DDEV config.

[rfay]

@echavaillaz please try a plain vanilla TYPO3 installation. Use the DDEV TYPO3 quickstart from the docs. Then ddev get drud/ddev-cron. See if it works. Then you can proceed to look at the difference between a regular TYPO3 installation and yours. From https://ddev.readthedocs.io/en/latest/users/quickstart/

mkdir my-typo3-site
cd my-typo3-site
ddev config --project-type=typo3 --docroot=public --create-docroot
ddev start
ddev composer create "typo3/cms-base-distribution" --no-install
ddev composer install
ddev exec touch public/FIRST_INSTALL
ddev launch
ddev get drud/ddev-cron

[rfay]

This isn't the place to discuss this, it needs a new issue, or we can talk more in discord, but I know it can work for you. I spent half a day sorting out the basic issue, so feel very familiar with it. We can do a screenshare call if you like.