I have 5 cron jobs running a PHP file. The PHP file checks the MySQL database for items that require processing. Since cron launches the scripts all at the same time, it seems that some of the items are processed twice, or even sometimes up to five times.
Upon SELECting the file in one of the scripts, it immediately sends an UPDATE query so that other jobs shouldn't run it again. But looks like it's still double processing.
What can I do to prevent the other scripts from processing an item that was previously selected by the other cron jobs?