Scheduling
Automation
Intermediate
Cron jobs-schedule automated tasks
Schedule scripts and commands to run automatically. Configure cron job timing, set up backups, maintenance tasks, reports.
UnderHost NOC
Network Operations
Cron jobs run scripts automatically at specified times. Common uses: backups, cache clearing, email reports, database maintenance, security scans.
Cron syntax
* * * * * command
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ └─ Day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)
│ │ │ └──── Month (1-12)
│ │ └─────── Day of month (1-31)
│ └────────── Hour (0-23)
└───────────── Minute (0-59)Common examples
0 2 * * * mysqldump -u user -p db > /backup/db.sql
# Daily backup at 2 AM
0 */6 * * * wget -O - -q https://yourdomain.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
# WordPress cron every 6 hours
0 0 1 * * /opt/cleanup.sh
# Monthly cleanup on 1st at midnight
30 9 * * 1-5 /usr/local/bin/report.sh
# Monday-Friday at 9:30 AMManage cron jobs
crontab -e # Edit cron jobs
crontab -l # List your crons
crontab -r # Remove all crons
sudo crontab -u user -e # Edit another user's cronsDebugging crons
Check if cron ran:
grep CRON /var/log/syslog # Linux
log stream --predicate 'process == "cron"' # macOSRedirect output to log file:
0 2 * * * /script.sh >> /var/log/cron.log 2>&1Use absolute paths
Always use full paths in cron jobs. Relative paths fail because cron doesn't have your shell environment.
Related: Command line | Backups
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