Long-running tasks
There are a few tasks Shlink needs to perform which are too heavy or time-consuming to be executed when a user visits a short URL.
In order to redirect end users as fast as possible to the final URLs, these tasks have been left for you to configure when and how often should they be executed.
Note
These tasks are not strictly required when serving Shlink with RoadRunner, as it has its own background jobs system that Shlink uses to delegate these tasks.
Download GeoLite2 DB
The visit:download-db command can be used to make sure your GeoLite2 db is up-to-date.
GeoLite2 DBs do not change that frequently or that much, so you don’t need to schedule this one with a very high frequency.
Locate visits
Shlink provides the command visit:locate, which will process all the IP addresses from visits in order to locate them. Those that have already been located will be skipped.
Shlink locates visits automatically just before redirecting end users. However, it might be a good idea to have previous scheduling in place, as a backup in case it fails.
Using cronjobs
One way to schedule any of the previous tasks is by making use of Unix cron jobs:
- Locate visits every hour:
0 * * * * /path/to/shlink/bin/cli visit:locate -q -n - Update the GeoLite2 db every 7 days:
0 0 * * 0 /path/to/shlink/bin/cli visit:download-db -q -n
The -q and -n flags are available on any Shlink command. The first one will discard any output, and the second one ensure the command is run in a non-interactive mode.