Cron Job: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners 2020

There are often ways to do things more efficiently. For example, handling repetitive tasks using an automated process is preferred by busy webmasters. If you use a Unix-like operating system, a cron job could save you time by performing tasks automatically.

In this article, we will explain the basics of a cron job and how to use it for scheduling tasks.

The Basics of a Cron Job

You can create and edit cron jobs using a few different methods. In this tutorial, we will show you how to do it using the Linux Shell Prompt (Terminal).

If you have a VPS at Hostinger, you can find the login credentials in your VPS management tab, and access your server through SSH. If you’re having trouble, check out our PuTTY SSH tutorial.

Here are some basic operations that cron jobs can perform:

If you want to edit a crontab file of the current user, type the following command in the terminal:

crontab -e

It will give you a result like this. As it uses the vi editor, you can learn the basic vi commands to make sure you take the right action.

If you want to edit another user’s crontab, you can type crontab -u username -e. Keep in mind that you can only do this as a superuser, meaning that you need to type: sudo su before the command.

If you want to remove the current crontab file of the current user, type the following command:

crontab -r

This is the same as -r,  however, it prompts the user with a yes/no option before removing the crontab:

crontab -i

If you want to display the contents of the crontab file you are currently logged in, type the following command in the terminal:

crontab -l

Another operation allows you to see if there are any crontab files created. You can simply type crontab -l. If you don’t have any, you will see this result. In addition, if you want to see the crontab file lists of other users, you can type crontab -u username -l  as a superuser. Apart from knowing the basic operations, it is important to learn the basic syntax too.

Basically, a crontab file consists of two parts: the schedule timer and the command.  This is how the command is written:

* * * * * /bin/sh backup.sh

• ***** /bin/sh backup.sh cronjob means that it will run a backup every minute.
• 30 18 * * * rm /home/sydtesting/tmp/* means that it removes the tmp files from /home/sydtesting/tmp every day at 6:30 PM.

Let’s get into some extra detail.

How to Write Cron Syntax Properly

As previously mentioned, a crontab file has five fields – each field is represented by an asterisk – to determine the date and time of a certain task set to perform repeatedly.

• Minute — minute of the hour the command will run on, ranging from 0 to 59.
• Hour — on what hour the command will run on, ranging from 0 to 23.
• Day of the month — on what day of the month you want the command run, ranging from 1 to 31.
• Month — on what month will the specified command run on, ranging from 1 to 12.
• Day of the week — on what day of the week you want a command run, ranging from 0 to 7.

Adding to that, you need to use the proper characters in each crontab file.

• Asterisk (*) — to define all the scheduling parameters.
• Comma (,) — to maintain two or more execution times of a single command.
• Hyphen (-) — to determine the range of time when setting several execution times of a single command.
• Slash (/) — for creating predetermined intervals of time in a specific range.
• Last (L) — for the specific purpose to determine the last day of the week in a given month. For example, 3L means the last Wednesday.
• Weekday (W) — to determine the closest weekday of a given time. For example, 1W means if the 1st is a Saturday, the command will run on Monday (the 3rd).
• Hash (#) — for determining the day of the week, followed by a number ranging from 1 to 5. For example, 1#2 means the second Monday
• Question mark (?) — to leave blank.

12 Cron Syntax Examples

Now that you have learned how to write cron syntax properly, we will give you more examples to help you understand the rules stated above better.

Before moving on, keep in mind that the output of the command will be automatically sent to your local email account. So, if you want to stop receiving these emails, you can add >/dev/null 2>&1 to the syntax as in the following example:

0 5 * * * /root/backup.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

If you want to send the email output to a specific account, then you can add MAILTO followed by the email address. Here is an example:

MAILTO="myname@hostinger.com"
0 3 * * * /root/backup.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Here are more syntax examples:

Expression	Meaning
0 0 * * * /bin/sh backup.sh	To perform a database backup at midnight, and run once a day.
0 6,18 * * * /bin/sh backup.sh	To perform a database backup twice a day at 6 AM and 6 PM.
0 */6 * * * /scripts/monitor.sh	To perform monitoring every six hours.
*/10 * * * * /home/user/script.sh	To perform a cron job for the script file located in the home directory every 10 minutes.
0 * 20 7 * /bin/sh backup.sh	To run a database backup every hour every 20th of July.
0 0 * * 2 * /bin/sh	To run a database backup at midnight every Tuesday.
* * * 1,2,5 *  /script/script.sh	To run a command in January, February, and May.
10-59/5 5 * * * /home/user/script.sh	To run a command every 5 minutes at 5 AM, starting at 5:10 AM.
0 8 1 */3 * /home/user/script.sh	To run a command quarterly on the 1st day at 8 AM.
* * * * * /scripts/script.sh; /scripts/scrit2.sh	To set a schedule for multiple jobs on a single cron job.
@reboot /scripts/script.sh	To perform a certain task every time you start the system.
0 0 1 * *  /home/user/script.sh	To run a command on the first day of every month

Cron Permissions

Two files play an important role when it comes to cron jobs.

• /etc/cron.allow – if the cron.allow exists, it must contain the user’s name for the user to use cron jobs.
• /etc/cron.deny – if the cron.allow file doesn’t exist but the cron.deny file does, then to use cron jobs the user must not be listed in the cron.deny file.

What is a Cron Job?

Cron is a utility program for repeating tasks at a later time. Giving a command that schedules a task, at a specific time, repeatedly is a cron job.

If you want to schedule a one time job, for a later time, you might want to use another command. But, for recurring jobs, cron is the perfect solution.

Cron is a daemon, meaning that it works in the background to execute non-interactive jobs. In Windows, you might be familiar with the background processes such as Services.

A daemon is always in the idle state and waits to see if a command requests it to perform a certain task — either within the computer or from any other computers on the network.

A cron file is a simple text file that contains commands to run at a specific time. The default system crontab file is /etc/crontab and is located within a crontab directory, /etc/cron.*/. Only system administrators can edit the system crontab file.

However, as Unix-like operating systems support multiple users, each one can also create their own crontab file and launch commands to perform jobs anytime they want. A cron daemon will check the file and run the command on the system background.

With cron jobs, you can automate system maintenance, disk space monitoring, and schedule backups. Because of its nature, cron jobs are great for a computer that works 24/7 — a server.

Please note that while cron jobs are mostly used by system administrators, it can be incredibly useful for web developers too. For example, use cron to deactivate expired accounts, check broken links, or even send newsletters for targeted users.

Conclusion

Setting up an automatically scheduled job will not only be practical but will also help prevent you from possibly missing the action on time.

Cron job is a great way to manage such tasks either as a system administrator or other professions like a web developer. All you need to do is to use the right command and choose the right time.

Here are some of the basic commands:

• $ crontab e — to create and edit a crontab file.
• $ crontab -u username -e — to edit other user’s crontab file with superuser access.
• $ crontab -l — to view the list of crontab file of the current users.
• $ crontab -r — to remove the crontab files.
• $ crontab -a filename — to install the filename as a crontab file (on some systems, –a is not needed).

Now try and let the automation work for you any time you prefer.