Cronjob starts multiple processes

Question

Cronjob creates multiple processes for the same script. One using

/usr/bin/php /path/to/php/script

And other using

/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/php /path/to/php/script

These are 2 separate processes. Why does this happen? I am running Ubuntu 14.10 server.

Answer 1

In your case the

    /bin/sh -c /usr/bin/php /path/to/php/script

Is likely the parent of:

    /usr/bin/php /path/to/php/script

Cron will execute /bin/sh -c of the command you have in your crontab. /bin/sh will then spawn a child process of the actual command you want to run, in your case:

  /usr/bin/php /path/to/php/script