This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 2 days at 4:00 am.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 4 */2 * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 2 days at 4:00 am.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at a specific time or interval. This can be used to automate tasks such as running backups, sending emails, or running system maintenance scripts.
The crontab is a file that contains instructions for the cron daemon. The crontab is typically edited using the crontab command.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every 2 days at 4:00 am“:
FUN FACT: When configuring a cron job, you can specify the minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week when it should run – this gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of when your task will be performed automatically!.
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 2 days at 4:00 am for several reasons, including:
- A cron job that runs every 2 days at 4:00 am could be used to send out a daily email report.
- A cron job that runs every 2 days at 4:00 am could be used to generate a list of users who have signed up for a service in the past 24 hours.
- A cron job that runs every 2 days at 4:00 am could be used to check for new software updates and install them if available.
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 10 days
- every 9 days
- every 6 days
- every 5 days
- every 1 day
- every 2 days
- every 3 days at 12:30 pm
- every 6 days at 6:30 pm
- every 9 days at 2:30 pm
FUN FACT: When editing your crontab, it is important to use a text editor that supports Unix-style line endings (LF), as opposed to Windows-style line endings (CRLF)..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 2 days at 4:00 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.