Cron Job Every Hour Between 1:00 am & 2:00 am (Crontab)

This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every hour between 1:00 am and 2:00 am.

The Cron Job/Crontab

To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:

0 1-2 * * *

This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):

“Every hour between 1:00 am and 2:00 am.”

What is a Cron Job & Crontab?

A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at specific intervals. These jobs are usually used for maintenance or automation purposes. For example, a cron job could be set to delete temporary files every week so that they don’t take up space on the server.

A crontab is a file that contains a list of commands that are to be executed at specified times. The commands in the crontab are executed by the cron daemon.

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 1:00 am and 2:00 am“:

Field 1: (0) indicates that the task will be run at minute 0.

Field 2: (1-2) indicates that the task will be run between hours 1 and 2 (1 am to 2 am).

Field 3: (*) indicates that the task will be run every day of the month.

Field 4: (*) indicates that the task will be run every month.

Field 5: (*) indicates that the task will be run every day of the week.

 

FUN FACT: Cron jobs are stored in a file called “crontab”, which is short for “cron table”..

Use Cases

You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every hour between 1:00 am and 2:00 am for several reasons, including:

• Sending a daily report at 1:00 am
• Backing up data at 1:30 am
• Updating software at 2:00 am

Similar Cron Jobs

You might also want to run a crontab:

• every 1 hour
• every 3 hours
• every 4 hours
• every 5 hours
• every hour between 3:00 am and 5:00 am
• every hour between 12:00 am and 4:00 am
• every hour between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm

FUN FACT: If you want to see what commands are scheduled in your crontab, type: “crontab -l”.

Wrapping Up

In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every hour between 1:00 am and 2:00 am. 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 cron job cheat sheet for a list of hundreds of popular cron jobs.