[For 1.8] Enable Systemd Timers to Handle MyBB Task System

[kawaii]

Create the following two files in your /etc/systemd/system/ directory:

/etc/systemd/system/mybb.service

[Unit]
Description=MyBB Tasks

[Service]
User=www-data
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php /var/www/mybb/task.php

/etc/systemd/system/mybb.timer

[Unit]
Description=Runs MyBB tasks every minute

[Timer]
OnBootSec=5min
OnUnitActiveSec=1min
Unit=mybb.service

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now, run the following commands in your terminal:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable mybb.timer
systemctl start mybb.timer

[WallBB]

I am not familiar with systemd tasks, I want to know will it not require any admin authentication to run tasks ?

[kawaii]

No authentication needed at all, the /task.php file is executed as the system user you specify in the mybb.service file (User=www-data).

[andrewjs18]

don't forget to remove this from the footer template or adjust the comment so it comments out {$task_image} as well:

<!-- The following piece of code allows MyBB to run scheduled tasks. DO NOT REMOVE -->{$task_image}<!-- End task image code -->

[andrewjs18]

This is working well. thanks, kawaii!

[Wires]

Nicely done, should probably explain why this may be preferred over MyBB's Crons

[Wildcard]

Bumping this to say that I finally got around to doing this and I should've done it long ago.

@kawaii is the best!

[sappy]

We could use

php7.3 instead of PHP?
For those who have php7.3 running?

[Unit]
Description=MyBB Tasks

[Service]
User=www-data
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php7.3 /var/www/mybb/task.php

[Omar G.]

Hi, nice tutorial.

Any insight into what the code would be for running multiple MyBB instances in a single server? I suppose only the first file would need modification.

[kawaii]

Hi, nice tutorial.

Any insight into what the code would be for running multiple MyBB instances in a single server? I suppose only the first file would need modification.

We can simply add Type=oneshot to the [Service] section of the mybb.service file, and then specify multiple ExecStart like this;

[Unit]
Description=MyBB Tasks

[Service]
Type=oneshot
User=www-data
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php /var/www/mybb/task.php
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php /var/www/another_forum/task.php
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php /var/www/secret_mybb/task.php

I didn't test this though, it may be better to specify many different service/timer files instead of my idea here.