This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 5 days at 5:30 am.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
30 5 */5 * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 5 days at 5:30 am.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at a specific interval. For example, a cron job can be set to run every day at midnight in order to update a database or send out nightly emails. Cron jobs are typically used for maintenance tasks that need to be performed on a regular basis.
Crontab is a file that contains commands and instructions for the cron daemon to execute. The crontab file is usually located in the /etc/cron directory. Each user on a system can have their own crontab file. The commands in the crontab files are executed by the cron daemon at the specified times.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every 5 days at 5:30 am“:
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)..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 5 days at 5:30 am for several reasons, including:
- Sending a daily digest of news articles to subscribers
- Generating a report of server usage statistics
- Backing up user data from a web application
- Clearing the cache of a web application
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 2 days
- every 10 days
- every 3 days
- every 7 days
- every 1 day
- every 9 days
- every 5 days at 4:00 am
- every 3 days at 12:00 pm
FUN FACT: Cron jobs are named after the Greek god of time, Chronos – so now you know where the name comes from!.
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 5 days at 5:30 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.