How to prevent the cron job execution, if it is already running

Question

I have one php script, and I am executing this script via cron every 10 minutes on CentOS.

The problem is that if the cron job will take more than 10 minutes, then a

Answer 1

Maybe it is better to not write code if you can configure it:

https://serverfault.com/questions/82857/prevent-duplicate-cron-jobs-running

Answer 2

Another alternative:

<?php

/**
* Lock manager to ensure our cron doesn't run twice at the same time.
*
* Inspired by the lock mechanism in Mage_Index_Model_Process
*
* Usage:
* 
* $lock = Mage::getModel('stcore/cron_lock');
*
* if (!$lock->isLocked()) {
*      $lock->lock();
*      // Do your stuff
*      $lock->unlock();
* }
*/
class ST_Core_Model_Cron_Lock extends Varien_Object
{
    /**
     * Process lock properties
     */
    protected $_isLocked = null;
    protected $_lockFile = null;

    /**
     * Get lock file resource
     *
     * @return resource
     */
    protected function _getLockFile()
    {
        if ($this->_lockFile === null) {
            $varDir = Mage::getConfig()->getVarDir('locks');
            $file = $varDir . DS . 'stcore_cron.lock';
            if (is_file($file)) {
                $this->_lockFile = fopen($file, 'w');
            } else {
                $this->_lockFile = fopen($file, 'x');
            }
            fwrite($this->_lockFile, date('r'));
        }
        return $this->_lockFile;
    }

    /**
     * Lock process without blocking.
     * This method allow protect multiple process runing and fast lock validation.
     *
     * @return Mage_Index_Model_Process
     */
    public function lock()
    {
        $this->_isLocked = true;
        flock($this->_getLockFile(), LOCK_EX | LOCK_NB);
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Lock and block process.
     * If new instance of the process will try validate locking state
     * script will wait until process will be unlocked
     *
     * @return Mage_Index_Model_Process
     */
    public function lockAndBlock()
    {
        $this->_isLocked = true;
        flock($this->_getLockFile(), LOCK_EX);
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Unlock process
     *
     * @return Mage_Index_Model_Process
     */
    public function unlock()
    {
        $this->_isLocked = false;
        flock($this->_getLockFile(), LOCK_UN);
        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Check if process is locked
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function isLocked()
    {
        if ($this->_isLocked !== null) {
            return $this->_isLocked;
        } else {
            $fp = $this->_getLockFile();
            if (flock($fp, LOCK_EX | LOCK_NB)) {
                flock($fp, LOCK_UN);
                return false;
            }
            return true;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Close file resource if it was opened
     */
    public function __destruct()
    {
        if ($this->_lockFile) {
            fclose($this->_lockFile);
        }
    }
}

Source: https://gist.github.com/wcurtis/9539178

Answer 3

flock will not work in php 5.3.3 as The automatic unlocking when the file's resource handle is closed was removed. Unlocking now always has to be done manually.