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See this for running command line php scripts with arguments:

  http://us2.php.net/features.commandline

When you have a PHP script that manipulates file structure (say deleting
certain files at a certain time) and that script is activated by a cron
job, make sure that you explicitly specify the file system structure in
your script -- that is, write out '/htdocs/www/deleteThisFile.txt'
instead of $_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT].'/deleteThisFile.txt'

For some reason the cron server doesn't activate the
$_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT] variable.

Wow, this was the first tutorial I found (including all of google's
first page of results) that a.)told me something other than what the
***** mean in the crontab, and b.) Told me how to execute a php script!
I was SO RELIEVED!

I had spent so much time searching through piles of jargon I didn't
understand and that didn't give a SINGLE example of how to run a php
script via cron (even though they purported to be tutorials) and then I
found this. THANK YOU!

I agree with a number of the other comments that are listed.  This was a
very quick and consise description of how to use cron with php.  Every
other text that I found was useless.

You can use cURL functions as a replacement for includes:

    http://us2.php.net/curl

Actually, there is a way to use includes. I had to do this with the
includes because I had multiple levels of scripts and even needed to run
the pear::Mail library. The main thing to conceptualize is that you're
not using Apache's environement anymore so your paths aren't the same as
if you were coming in from a browser. Nevertheless, you can set your env
(path) on the fly and it will behave nicely again LOL:

// Set path since we're not using apache env
ini_set("include_path",
".:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/home/path/to/pear");

// Now I can include these scripts (which in fact call scripts that call
other scripts...etc.,etc.
include 'Mine_uses_pear_Mail.php';//Mail actually includes other
php...so you see how hairy it can get!
include 'DB.php';

Note that I'm on a shared host, so I ran a phpinfo() script to get the
php default paths; than used those + the pear path that I needed; The
one dot is for current directory i.e.   .:
Also note that the first php script your cron job is running needs to
have:
#!/usr/local/bin/php at the VERY beginning (even before the <?php tag!)
This is because the cron is going to run the script but doesn't now to
get the php iinterpreter involved. That line basically 'execs' or tells
php engine 'hey, run this code'. Sorry for the pedantics, but that's how
I think of it ;)

Here's a set of test scripts you can use to set up the cron initially,
and than if you get it working you can try to adapt to your script. Note
that the ini_set stuff isn't in here because this is a first step set of
scripts to get the cron working right (see my example from above to set
the paths):

Script One that your cron will call, info.php
---------------------------
#!/usr/local/bin/php
<?php
include "info2.php";
echo 'This is info.php';
phpinfo();//this'll put a lot of env info to your email! comment out if
you don't want that
?>
-----------------
Script two info2.php
-----------------
<?php
echo 'We doing an echo from info2...got here!';
?>
-------------------
Now set your cron to run every minute or so while testing and you should
see output to the email you've told cron to report to. Once you're happy
with everything, you can stop the script from logging output to your
email by adding the -q switch to your first line ala:
#!/usr/local/bin/php -q

Hope this helps someone out there in cyberland ;)

Here is a good crontab reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crontab

Be aware that when a PHP script runs from cron here, these $_SERVER
values will be different than what you see when you run the PHP script
from your own shell:

$_SERVER['PWD'] = '/var/spool'
$_SERVER['HOME'] = 'actual full path to your homedir as told in other
FAQ'
$_SERVER['TERM'] = 'dumb'

Whereas PWD when the script is run from your shell will be your present
working directory where you were sitting when you invoked the script,
HOME will not exist, and TERM would be 'linux'

Other SERVER vars that come from Apache's environment, like PHP_SELF and
DocumentRoot will not exist when the script is run from cron or from
your shell.

If you really need those server variables you can use the command:
wget http://example.com/cron/script.php

this will essentially make cron call the script as a normal user would,
via apache.

WGET is an easy solution when you need to pass parameters in the URL.
Just be sure to include quotation marks if needed:
/usr/bin/wget 'http://example.com/cron/script.php?list=1&task=2'