Install testtasks https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-tool_testtasks In terminal 1 run:  watch -n 1 'ps aux | grep php' Note: htop grab the current process title when it starts, but doesn't dynamically refresh the titles each second so you won't see anything change. In terminal 2 run the adhoc runner with keepalive = 10 but with no tasks: php admin/cli/adhoc_task.php -k= 10 -e Confirm you can see 'Waiting 10s for next adhoc task' in terminal 1 and it counts down then exits brendan 17856 09:02 0:00 php admin/cli/adhoc_task.php -k=10 -e (May 17, 09:02:49 Waiting 9s for next adhoc task) In terminal 2 queue up some adhoc tasks php admin/tool/testtasks/cli/queue_adhoc_tasks.php -n= 100 In terminal 2 run:  php admin/cli/cron.php In terminal 3 run: php admin/cli/adhoc_task.php -e Confirm you can see in the live process list for both cron and the adhoc tasks, the start time, task class, and for ad hoc tasks the task id : brendan 17927 09:04 0:00 php admin/cli/adhoc_task.php -e (May 17, 09:04:23 Adhoc task: 58786 tool_testtasks\task\timed_adhoc_task) brendan 17888 09:03 0:00 php admin/cli/cron.php (May 17, 09:03:49 Scheduled task: core\task\automated_backup_task)  # Confirm that the tasks both have a section in brackets describing the current task, for example : May 17, 09:04:23 Adhoc task: 58786 tool_testtasks\task\timed_adhoc_task May 17, 09:03:49 Scheduled task: core\task\automated_backup_task