Run Laravel queues without SSH or Supervisor

The setup

1. 1

   Set QUEUE_CONNECTION=database in .env.

2. 2

   Make sure the jobs and failed_jobs tables exist. New Laravel installs create them with the default migrations.

3. 3

   Add the schedule below, and the cron job from the previous chapter.

Schedule::command('queue:work --stop-when-empty --tries=3 --max-time=50')
    ->everyMinute()
    ->withoutOverlapping(10);

What each part does

• --stop-when-empty exits once there is nothing left, so no process lingers.
• --max-time=50 stops after 50 seconds, so one run ends before the next one starts.
• --tries=3 gives up on a failing job after three attempts, and it goes to failed_jobs.
• withoutOverlapping(10) stops two workers running together. The lock expires after 10 minutes, in case a run was killed.

If your cron runs every 5 minutes, use ->everyFiveMinutes(). Jobs then wait up to 5 minutes, which is fine for most emails.

Respect your email limit

Newsletters can use up your host's hourly email limit, and then password-reset emails fail too. Put bulk mail on its own queue, and process the important queue first:

queue:work --queue=default,newsletter --stop-when-empty --max-time=50