Questions tagged [cron]

cron is a task scheduler based on clock time that runs on Linux-based machines.

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101 votes
8 answers
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How can I view results of my cron jobs?

I see so many guides on how to run crontab, but what I need right now is to learn how to Find log files about cron jobs Configure what gets logged
Zombies's user avatar
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84 votes
13 answers
194k views

How to make WSL run services at startup

After searching this site and various Q, it is clear that services and systemd is not available for WSL. I need to run a program in WSL every time I start my PC so I read this page on how to use ...
seanbw's user avatar
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83 votes
11 answers
353k views

How to stop a currently running cron job?

How can I stop a cron job which is currently running?
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81 votes
4 answers
219k views

How to run a cron job as a specific user?

I would like to run a cron job as a specific user on my machine. How may I specify the user for a cron job to run as?. The cron jobs will be running on a server (running on Ubuntu 10.0.4). The 'users'...
morpheous's user avatar
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80 votes
11 answers
140k views

How can I get a script to run every day on Mac OS X?

Cron? Launchd? iCal?? If so, how?
Paul D. Waite's user avatar
74 votes
7 answers
184k views

Run a command every week with Cron?

Simple question- what would a crontab entry look like for a command I want to run every week on Saturday at 8:05 AM?
igul222's user avatar
  • 993
72 votes
2 answers
123k views

Set a cron every certain hours between certain hours

How can I set a cron to run every 2 hours between 8 am and 5 pm for example? Is this possible?
luqita's user avatar
  • 841
59 votes
19 answers
129k views

Run a cron job on the first Monday of every month?

I'd like to run a job from cron at 8.30 on the first Monday of every month. The cron Wikipedia page says While normally the job is executed when the time/date specification fields all match ...
Max Williams's user avatar
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57 votes
2 answers
62k views

Difference between /etc/crontab and "crontab -e"

What is the difference between the crontab located in /etc/crontab and the crontab that can be edited using crontab -e?
jrdioko's user avatar
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51 votes
1 answer
94k views

what is run-parts in /etc/crontab, and how do I use it

I have been digging through my Linux system. To try and understand how it all works In the /etc/crontab file. I see the following # run-parts 01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly 02 4 * * * ...
nelaaro's user avatar
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46 votes
4 answers
43k views

Log of cron actions on OS X

Does the cron which comes with OS X log its actions anywhere? I'm not looking for output of any particular cron job, but rather log of what cron is doing. On a couple linux machines I've checked, ...
Doug Harris's user avatar
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40 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the point of system-autodeath?

In a previous question I found a "system autodeath cron job" which would shut down my default network route daily. As I have never heard of such a thing before, I would like to know what it exactly ...
bobby's user avatar
  • 553
39 votes
9 answers
23k views

Error adding cronjobs in Mac OS X Lion

Until now, I have never attempted adding a crontask on my Mac. To my surprise, it threw an error.. [hayek@mac:/www/] 02:33:22 PM: crontab -e ...
Hayek's user avatar
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36 votes
2 answers
53k views

Why doesn't my cron.d per minute job run?

I have thrown a bunch of darts trying to get a python script of mine to execute every minute. So I thought I'd simplify it to just do the "simplest thing that could could possibly work" once per ...
Travis Griggs's user avatar
35 votes
5 answers
64k views

How do I run a launchd command as root

I have the following launchctl command as a .plist file. It's loaded and set to run once a day but, it needs to run as root and I'm not sure how to verify this. Also, this cron job basically CDs ...
Emmanuel Mwangi's user avatar
33 votes
5 answers
43k views

crontab to wake osx from sleep

I have a crontab which will launch a certain program early in the morning (after I have gone to sleep) and close it again later in the morning (before I wake up). But my iMac will not execute the ...
Nippysaurus's user avatar
  • 1,435
24 votes
3 answers
46k views

How to use @reboot in /etc/cron.d

I am migrating individual user's crontabs to /etc/cron.d, as that would allow proper backup, restore and versioning. So far, as I understand the only difference between user's crontabs and the etc ...
hyperknot's user avatar
  • 892
23 votes
2 answers
32k views

How do I setup a cron job on OS X to run a curl command at a specific time every day?

I have a CURL command I want to run every day at say 3am, but I am not sure about how to set that up and the guides are all weird. Assume I have a lot of terminal/bash experience, but I have never ...
marcamillion's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
67k views

linux: how to run a command in a given directory

I simply want to just run a command (actually its a shell script) from a given directory as a cron job. How can I run it so that it is set to a given directory without using cd.
Zombies's user avatar
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21 votes
4 answers
14k views

How did I wipe out all my cron jobs?

I have accidentally wiped out all my cron jobs. I'm not sure what I have done. I don't remember deleting entries from it by issuing crontab -e. What are the possible ways that the cron jobs can be ...
Jason Yeo's user avatar
  • 315
19 votes
2 answers
27k views

Run a cron job every 5 minutes between two times

Is there a way to specify a job that runs every 5 minutes between some start time and some end time on business days in a crontab? Update I think it's relevant that my start and end times are not at ...
pythonic metaphor's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
5k views

Cron runs only once instead every minute

I'm trying to run a script every minute (on a Docker container running Ubuntu 16.04). The /etc/echo.sh simply echo the word "hi" cat /etc/crontab * * * * * root /etc/echo.sh > /var/log/cron.log ...
Sig's user avatar
  • 521
18 votes
4 answers
23k views

ssh Permission denied only in cron job

Having a very strange problem. I've created a small bash script which runs a command on a remote host via ssh (using public key authentication). When I run this script manually from the command line ...
Yoav Aner's user avatar
  • 675
17 votes
1 answer
13k views

crontab day of week vs. day of month?

I added this to /etc/crontab on a few different linux & freebsd systems: # monthly reboot: 3rd Tuesday of every month 56 07 15-21 * 2 root /sbin/shutdown -r now I want a reboot on the 3rd ...
ane's user avatar
  • 173
16 votes
6 answers
14k views

Mac crontab is never created

I am trying to setup a cron on my mac, but it seems that it never finishes creating a crontab for my user. I open terminal and enter: $ crontab -e Which returns this: crontab: no crontab for ...
Jage's user avatar
  • 261
16 votes
2 answers
15k views

Multiple crontabs for one user

is there a way to use multiple crontab files for one user? Thinking something along the lines of crontab file per project instead of crontab per user... Any help is appreciated...
realshadow's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
34k views

Behavior of rsync with file that's still being written?

If Apache is in the middle of writing a large file and an rsync cron job runs on that file, does rsync attempt to copy the file? Example Apache-1: Has file large being written to /var/www. Apache-2: ...
Louis Waweru's user avatar
  • 24.6k
15 votes
1 answer
56k views

Why is my crontab not running

I have this cron 38 * * * * /bin/bash -l -c 'cd /var/rails/site/releases/20120705144335 && script/rails runner -e qa '\''Play.load_lists'\''' I have this cron under the a different user so ...
Matt Elhotiby's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
16k views

Where is my crontab file on OS X?

Moving to a new laptop I've lost my old cron setup. I'd like to include it in my backup going forward. Where is it located?
Thomas David Baker's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
17k views

Running mysql dump in a cron job without exposing passwords

I want to run mysqldump -u aUser -p P4SSw0rd --all-databases > backup.sql in a cron job. How can I do so securely? I know I could put the command right there, but anyone with access to the ...
user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
13k views

How do I create a cron job that will commit my project changes to git on a weekly basis

I'm using git for the purposes of making a historical transcript of the changes made to my project. I understand it's not the ideal usage but it's the usage pattern I've chosen for various reasons ...
Jason's user avatar
  • 1,899
13 votes
4 answers
24k views

Can I make cron "random"?

Maybe I'm completely nuts, and if so - that's fine. But how would I schedule a job to on-some-random-schedule broadcast a goofy message, like from fortune? clarification yes - this is my personal ...
warren's user avatar
  • 10.1k
12 votes
7 answers
35k views

cron: run a process but only if it isnt running?

Is there a way for me to tell cron to run an app BUT not run it if a process exist already?
user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
24k views

Crontab deleted?

Instead of typing "crontab -e" I accidentally typed "crontab" and was stuck in the middle of a process so I aborted the process. Now when I go to crontab -e it's entirely blank. This isn't good at all....
user12832's user avatar
  • 357
12 votes
2 answers
6k views

Common Mac OS folders/settings to check (when trying to get rid of a pesky self-launching app)

If there's an app that starts up by itself, what would the most efficient places to look for it be? Does anyone have a nice comprehensive list of where to check for Startup Items, Login Items, Login ...
username's user avatar
  • 1,398
12 votes
4 answers
18k views

How to set cron PATH globally (i.e. for all users) permanently?

We need to have /usr/local/bin in cron's path for all users. Is there a way to set it system-wide, without needing to edit each individual user's crontab? We've tried adding PATH to /etc/crontab: # ...
grosser's user avatar
  • 393
11 votes
2 answers
15k views

How do you use the run-parts command?

For some reason my crontab is not running the hourly/weekly/etc scripts. It seems to be that run-parts is not working and I cant get it to work on my local machine as well. Is there a mistake in the ...
Fabian Barkhau's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
55k views

Verify that a cron job has completed

Is there a command that can be run to verify that a users cron job has run successfully? Platform is Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. I have scripts in /home/useraccount/bin/ running crontab -l while logged in ...
CaseyIT's user avatar
  • 3,361
11 votes
5 answers
30k views

Timezone issue with cron

My cron jobs are computed one hour later compared to server time. I don't understand what is going on. My configuration is the following : Server time : Europe/Paris In /etc/default/cron I added ...
Guillaume Lebourgeois's user avatar
11 votes
8 answers
52k views

Bad minute in crontab?

I get the following error in my syslog: Oct 17 13:14:03 tracker cron[873]: (*system*) ERROR (Syntax error, this crontab file will be ignored) Oct 17 13:14:03 tracker cron[873]: Error: bad minute; ...
David Pfeffer's user avatar
10 votes
5 answers
4k views

Cron can't find executable which works in terminal?

I've written a small tool in C++, compiled it, made it executable, and move it to /opt/tools/bin. The latter is a directory I created to store small, custom programs. I export it to $PATH in my ....
St4rb0y's user avatar
  • 213
10 votes
5 answers
23k views

how to make run cron on OSX 10.6.2?

Note: this question is not about how to edit cron tab but how to make cron work I edited my cron using env EDITOR=joe crontab -e I entered 1 * * * * echo 'test' > /Users/radek/Backup/...
Radek's user avatar
  • 3,084
10 votes
2 answers
12k views

Problem with $RANDOM in crontab

I've got a strange problem with $RANDOM in cron. I wish to execute a command a random number of minutes after the cronjob fires. This example works directly in the terminal and delays the command up ...
marlar's user avatar
  • 477
10 votes
4 answers
16k views

bash: using scp in cron job fails, but runs succesfully when run from command line

I am trying to use scp in a bash script run by cron (I am running this on Ubuntu 10.0.4 LTS). The script works fine (i.e. transfers and copies file1 and file2 to/from the remote server, when I run it ...
oompahloompah's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
25k views

how to run cron jobs on GMT not local time?

How can I make cron jobs run on GMT, not local time? this is my crontab file: #m h d m wday command TZ=GMT 5 0,6,12,18 * * * ~/Documents/bash/transfer.sh my jobs seem to ...
compound eye's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
55k views

cron expression for every hour starting from specific time

Every one hour (starting from "now") I am able to schedule using this cron expression (expression) using nodejs cron-job. But I need to set cron every one hour starting from a specific time. For ...
Devaraj C's user avatar
  • 201
10 votes
4 answers
10k views

How can I create a cron job that runs a task every three weeks?

I have a task that needs to be performed on my project schedule (3 weeks). I'm able to set up cron to do this every week, or (for example) on the 3rd week of every month - but can't find a way to do ...
itj's user avatar
  • 343
9 votes
4 answers
38k views

Running Cronjobs as per Local Time rather than Universal Time

On running dpkg-reconfigure tzdata in terminal and i get 2 different time on my machine Local time is now: Wed May 1 11:58:55 IST 2013. Universal Time is now: Wed May 1 06:28:55 UTC 2013. ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
4k views

Why does cron only offer minute granularity?

It feels like there are use cases for things you'd want to run once every 5 seconds, twice a minute, etc, but these are impossible with cron. Why hasn't second-level cron granularity been built into ...
Kevin Burke's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
7k views

cron can't read PYTHONPATH environment variables?

I have added to the PYTHONPATH on my server's .bash_profile file. However it appears that cron isn't reading from it because I am getting import errors. If I run the exact command cron calls on the ...
JiminyCricket's user avatar

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