LR Metronome keeps Flarum's scheduled tasks running on shared hosting where PHP's proc_open function is turned off.
The problem
Flarum's scheduler starts every scheduled task as a separate process, and that needs proc_open. Plenty of shared hosts disable it. When they do, php flarum schedule:run looks fine: it exits cleanly, and the admin dashboard even says the scheduler is active. But no task ever actually runs. The only trace is a line in the log, for every task, every minute:
The Process class relies on proc_open, which is not available on your PHP installation.
So every extension that cleans up, syncs or adds things up on a schedule quietly does nothing, and it looks like their bug.
The fix
Metronome adds a schedule:run-inline command. It runs the exact same schedule inside the one PHP process your cron job already starts, so nothing needs proc_open.
It keeps the stock behavior wherever it can: due times, maintenance mode, withoutOverlapping() locks (compatible both ways with the stock runner), onOneServer(), hooks, output capture, failure logging, and the scheduler status on the admin dashboard.
Two things can't be the same without proc_open, and it tells you instead of skipping work:
- A task that asks to run in the background runs in the foreground, with a warning. It still runs.
- A task that's a raw shell command can't run at all, so it's reported as failed instead of ignored.
Setup
composer require linkrobins/metronome
Enable it under Admin, Extensions, then replace your scheduler cron line (or your host's cron jobs panel entry) with this, once a minute:
* * * * * php /path/to/flarum/flarum schedule:run-inline
Replace, don't add. With both lines in cron, every task runs twice a minute. Metronome warns you if it spots that. If you never had a scheduler cron line, which is probably why you're here, there's nothing to remove.
There are no settings. If your host does have proc_open, keep using the stock schedule:run.
Requirements
- Flarum 2.0 or later, PHP 8.3+
Source: https://github.com/linkrobins/metronome
Packagist: https://packagist.org/packages/linkrobins/metronome
Every release is posted below.
