Different Types of cron Configuration

There are two different types of configuration files:

  1. The UNIX / Linux system crontab : Usually, used by system services and critical jobs that requires root like privileges. The sixth field (see below for field description) is the name of a user for the command to run as. This gives the system crontab the ability to run commands as any user.
  2. The user crontabs: User can installer their own jobs using the crontab command. The sixth field is the command to run, and all commands run as the user who created the crontab

How Do I Install / Create / Edit My Own Cronjobs?

To edit your crontab file, type the following command at the UNIX / Linux shell prompt:
$ crontab -e

Syntax of crontab (Field Description)

Your cron job looks as follows for user jobs:

 1 2 3 4 5 /path/to/command arg1 arg2

OR

 
1 2 3 4 5 /root/backup.sh

Where,

  • 1: Minute (0-59)
  • 2: Hours (0-23)
  • 3: Day (0-31)
  • 4: Month (0-12 [12 == December])
  • 5: Day of the week(0-7 [7 or 0 == sunday])
  • /path/to/command – Script or command name to schedule

 

Easy to remember format:

* * * * * command to be executed
- - - - -
| | | | |
| | | | ----- Day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7)
| | | ------- Month (1 - 12)
| | --------- Day of month (1 - 31)
| ----------- Hour (0 - 23)
------------- Minute (0 - 59)

 

Your cron job looks as follows for system jobs:

1 2 3 4 5 USERNAME /path/to/command arg1 arg2

OR

1 2 3 4 5 USERNAME /path/to/script.sh

Example: Install Backup Job Script

If you wished to have a script named /root/backup.sh run every day at 3am, your crontab entry would look like as follows. First, install your cronjob by running the following command:
# crontab -e
Append the following entry:
0 3 * * * /root/backup.sh
Save and close the file.

More Examples

To run /path/to/command five minutes after midnight, every day, enter:

5 0 * * * /path/to/command

Run /path/to/script.sh at 2:15pm on the first of every month, enter:

15 14 1 * * /path/to/script.sh

Run /scripts/phpscript.php at 10 pm on weekdays, enter:

0 22 * * 1-5 /scripts/phpscript.php

Run /root/scripts/perl/perlscript.pl at 23 minutes after midnight, 2am, 4am …, everyday, enter:

23 0-23/2 * * * /root/scripts/perl/perlscript.pl

Run /path/to/unixcommand at 5 after 4 every Sunday, enter:

5 4 * * sun /path/to/unixcommand

Task: List All Your crontab Jobs

Type the following command :

# crontab -l
# crontab -u username -l

To remove or erase all crontab jobs use the following command:

# crontab -r
crontab -r -u username

 

adapted from cyberciti.biz