title: Php Cron Job on XAMPP Windows
body: <p>Well I am new to the term <code>CRON</code>. What I know about this, it is a <code>Unix</code> concept to schedule particular operation to be executed after a defined time interval.</p>
  
  <p>I need to run a <code>php</code> file, to update database once every hour. But my confusion is with scheduling the execution. I am using <code>XAMPP</code> for local development test on Windows 7.</p>
  
  <p>What I found:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16880329/how-to-run-a-php-file-as-a-cron-job-in-cpanel-in-bigrock-shared-hosting-service">How to run a php file as a cron job in cPanel in Bigrock Shared Hosting service?</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17442040/setting-up-a-cronjob-in-windows-xampp">Setting Up A Cronjob In Windows Xampp</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18737407/how-to-create-cron-job-using-php">How to create cron job using PHP?</a></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>In all the above links, they are saying to configure a <code>cron</code> job on linux shell level. <strong>So is it, that the cron is on OS level and not on application level program.</strong></p>
  
  <p>If yes, then how can I create a cron in php on a shared hosting.? If I do not have access to the command line, then I cannot create a Cron job for php.?</p>
  
  <p>If no, then how?</p>
  
  <p>In all the above example I found one similar fashion of code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>0 * * * *     cd C:/xampp/htdocs/plugins/moviefeed/ &amp;&amp; php cron.php
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What is this <code>*</code> for?</p>