Cronping

Basic usage

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# Your job logic here
/usr/bin/backup.sh

# Ping Cronping on success
curl -fsS https://ping.cronping.com/<token>

Using set -e causes the script to exit immediately on any error, which means the ping call at the end only runs if everything above it succeeded.

Wrapper pattern

A robust pattern for wrapping any command:

#!/bin/bash

PING_URL="https://ping.cronping.com/<token>"
JOB_CMD="/usr/bin/backup.sh"

# Run the job
if "$JOB_CMD"; then
    # Success — ping Cronping
    curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL"
else
    echo "Job failed with exit code $?" >&2
    # Do not ping — Cronping will alert via the missed heartbeat
fi

Capturing output and pinging

#!/bin/bash

PING_URL="https://ping.cronping.com/<token>"
LOG_FILE="/var/log/my-job.log"

echo "=== Starting job $(date) ===" >> "$LOG_FILE"

if /usr/bin/my-job.sh >> "$LOG_FILE" 2>&1; then
    curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL" > /dev/null
    echo "Job succeeded and Cronping notified" >> "$LOG_FILE"
else
    echo "Job FAILED" >> "$LOG_FILE"
fi

Running from crontab

# Run every day at 3 AM
0 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup-with-ping.sh >> /var/log/backup.log 2>&1

Environment variables

If you manage multiple heartbeats, store tokens as environment variables:

#!/bin/bash

# Load from .env or /etc/environment
BACKUP_PING_URL="https://ping.cronping.com/<token>"

/usr/bin/backup.sh && curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$BACKUP_PING_URL"

cron one-liner (recommended for simple jobs)

For simple jobs, you don't need a wrapper script:

0 3 * * * /usr/bin/backup.sh && curl -fsS --max-time 10 https://ping.cronping.com/<token>

Measuring run duration with /start

Send a /start ping before the job begins and a success ping after. Cronping will measure and display the duration:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

PING_URL="https://ping.cronping.com/<token>"

curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL/start"
/usr/bin/backup.sh
curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL"

If no success or fail ping arrives within the grace period after /start, Cronping will mark the heartbeat as Down.

Reporting exit codes

Pass the shell exit code directly in the URL — 0 is success, anything else is failure:

#!/bin/bash

PING_URL="https://ping.cronping.com/<token>"

/usr/bin/backup.sh
curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL/$?"

Signaling failure explicitly

Use /fail to immediately trigger a Down alert without waiting for the grace period:

#!/bin/bash

PING_URL="https://ping.cronping.com/<token>"

curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL/start"
if /usr/bin/backup.sh; then
    curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL"
else
    curl -fsS --max-time 10 "$PING_URL/fail"
fi

Shell Scripts