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EntityQ300864· pop 29· linked from 253 articles

Also known as UNIX cron

cron is a time-based job scheduler. A scheduled job is known as a cron job. Although typically used to automate system maintenance and administration it can be used to automate any task. is most suitable for scheduling repetitive tasks as scheduling a one-time task can be accomplished via at.

Key facts

Software.name
cron
Software.screenshot
Cron-example-command.gif
Software.caption
Example usage of utility
Software.developer
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Software.programming language
C
Software.operating system
Unix and Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno
Software.genre
Job scheduler

via Wikipedia infobox

~19 min read

Encyclopedic overview

15 sections
Contents
  • Overview
  • Nonstandard predefined scheduling definitions
  • Cron permissions
  • Time zone handling
  • History
  • Early versions
  • Multi-user capability
  • Modern versions
  • Standardization efforts
  • Cron expression
  • Non-standard characters
  • See also
  • Note
  • References
  • External links

cron is a time-based job scheduler. A scheduled job is known as a cron job. Although typically used to automate system maintenance and administration it can be used to automate any task. is most suitable for scheduling repetitive tasks as scheduling a one-time task can be accomplished via at.

The daemon name originates from Chronos, the Greek word for time.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cron” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.