The question is very easy, I want to execute several php files every "N" minutes. For example:

every N minutes { execute(script1.php) execute(script2.php) execute(script3.php) }

I know about crontab but i was trying to find another solution. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Using a Cron job is the usual solution. Can you explain why you don't want to use CRON? I've also seen libraries that add cron-like features to your system. For example in the Java/Groovy/Grails world there's the Quartz library/plugin. A quick Google search yielded a PHP library called phpJobScheduler that seems similar to Quartz. I have never used phpJobScheduler so I can't vouch for it.

I'd be interested in why you don't want to use crontabs for this? Are you going to be the primary web operations person running this server or will you be relying on an existing sysop team? You may want to get their input since they are the ones who will be most impacted by what method you choose. I've found they tend to be fond of cron for simple scheduling.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5097142/execute-php-files-periodicaly

I would like a script to delet or drop all tables whose name begins with a given string. I'm sure this can be done with some dynamic sql and the INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables.

If anyone has a script, or can tap one up quickly, please post it.

If no-one posts an answer previous to I figure it out myself, I'll post my solution.

DECLARE @cmd varchar(4000)
DECLARE cmds CURSOR FOR
SELECT 'drop table [' + Table_Name + ']'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE Table_Name LIKE 'prefix%'

OPEN cmds
WHILE 1 = 1
BEGIN
    FETCH cmds INTO @cmd
    IF @@fetch_status != 0 BREAK
    EXEC(@cmd)
END
CLOSE cmds;
DEALLOCATE cmds

This is cleaner than using a two-step approach of create script plus run. But one advantage of the script creation is that it gives you the chance to review the entirety of what's going to be run before it's actually run.

I know that if I were going to do this next to a production database, I'd be as careful as possible.