executing newLISP scripts when there is no cron

[joejoe]

Hi -

At the moment, nearlyfreespeech.net doesnt have cron available.

Is it possible to call a .lsp file from another server that allows cron? (without leaving the .lsp file world readable?)

Or would it be a drag on the server to set up a persistent nL script that calls another nL script every half hour or so?

Has anyone w/ nearlyfreespeech.net figured a way to do scheduled jobs with newLISP?

thanks very much for any insight or direction!

[cormullion]

Interesting question, but I don't know any answers... I don't think you can run anything persistent on nearlyfreespeech.net - if noone's looking at your site, it isn't there...

I suppose it also depends on what sort of job you want the script to run? Don't know if you can get something to run if you make a particular request on a cgi page...

[itistoday]

Yes, simply make it world readable but pass in a secret token.

I.e. say your server is using Dragonfly and you've got a page like this:

http://www.my-cronless-server.com/cron?secret=blah

Then just load that URL periodically from some location. The blah page will check (if (= "blah" ($GET "secret")) (do-stuff)).

For added security use POST instead of GET and combine with HTTPS.

[joejoe]

Excellent! I will try this with Dragonfly and report back my success. Thanks to both of you for the direction.

[joejoe]

It seems that dragonfly can only run in the /home/public folder on nearlyfreespeech.net and i have another script running in the /home/public folder so i cannot see how i would be able to use dragonfly on this same account to execute a nL script.

I will try to figure out another way. At the moment I am thinking to write a php file that can be executed from a cron job on a server with cron. I would like to use newLISP for this, but my skill is still very low.

If I figure out something with nL, I will post back here. If anyone has an idea, I'd be happy to try and implement it. :D

[rand]

you can try http://cronless.com/

[itistoday]

you can try http://cronless.com/

What a useful site!

[joejoe]

Another thought on using nL when there is no cron:

If I can run my script on another server that has cron and nL, can I use nL to transfer the file via ftp to the remote server?

Im thinking of trying to use one of the Socket TCP/IP and UDP network API functions.

If that cant be done, am I correct to assume I can execute an ftp command via nL to put the file on a remote server?

thanks very much!

[itistoday]

Here's another site for the same thing:

http://www.runmelater.com/