Running a script without a browser, possible?

I am wondering if this is possible:

I put a php file - or perhaps another language - on the server and execute it without opening a browser.

Why do I want such a thing: say I want to make a crawler, the way I know now is to write a php script that follows some urls and read them, this way I have to open my browser and wait until it finishes its job. Now I want to know if I can put a file on the host and let the host server do that for me without me being even connected to the internet.

I guess if such a thing is possible it would be another languages and not PHP.

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Thanks Shawn

I think I am going to need some time to grasp this area.

 

I am looking for that solution, too. I like something like cron jobs to clean up the things.

 

$ php /path/to/file/php.php

You can also use this command in cron

 

Yes, but only in case I can use linux shell have have authority to use cron. How can I do using hosting service like godaddy?

 

Some hosts allow you to setup cron jobs via a control panel interface. If there is nothing in the control panel and they don't offer shell access, get a better host.

 

if you have CPanel than you can use cron easily or if you have shell access than u can use it.

cron is a tremendeus function for me