This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every hour between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 16-22 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every hour between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a task that is scheduled to run at a specific time or interval. Cron jobs are commonly used to automate system maintenance or administration tasks, such as running backups or sending emails.
Crontab files are typically stored in the /etc/crontab file, but they can also be stored in individual user’s home directories. To edit your own crontab file, you can use the command “crontab -e”. This will open up the file in your default text editor.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every hour between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm“:
FUN FACT: Each user on a system can have their own crontab, and commands in them will be executed as that user..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every hour between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm for several reasons, including:
- Checking if a server is up
- Checking the status of a long-running job
- Sending out a daily report
- Generating a monthly report
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 5 hours
- every 1 hour
- every 2 hours
- every 6 hours
- every 8 hours
- every 7 hours
- every hour between 4:00 am and 6:00 pm
- every hour between 12:00 am and 7:00 am
- every hour between 7:00 am and 12:00 pm
FUN FACT: When troubleshooting issues with cron jobs, it can be helpful to run them manually from the command line – this will allow you to see any error messages that might be generated..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every hour between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Please share this page with friends and colleagues if you find it useful.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment below.
If you are looking for cron jobs that run at certain minutes, hours, days, weekdays, or months, or if you are looking for miscellaneous cron jobs, then check out our relevant sections, or visit our crontab cheat sheet for a list of hundreds of popular cron jobs.