Problem:
Script executed with a cron job requires a specific php.ini file to be used.
Solution:
When executing a PHP script from a cron job (or via the command line), you can use a custom php.ini file.
To specify an alternate php.ini file, you'll need to use the -c flag in your PHP command line.
For example:
php -c /home/username/public_html/php.ini /home/username/public_html/myscript.php
where /home/username/public_html/php.ini is the full path to the php.ini file you'd like to use and /home/username/public_html/myscript.php is the full path to the php script you'd like to run.
Note: Your home directory may be home1, home2, home3, etc.
The most common situation where a custom php.ini file is needed is when a user's code requires access to something such as Zend Optimizer, which is specified in the php.ini file.