This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 1 hour (60 minutes).
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run once per hour, use the following cron:
0 * * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every hour.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a Linux utility used for scheduling the execution of commands or scripts at a specified time and date. Cron is typically used for system maintenance or administration, such as running backups or log rotation.
A crontab is a file containing commands and instructions for the cron daemon to execute.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs hourly, or “every hour“:
- Field 1: (0) indicates that the task will be run at minute 0.
- Field 2: (*) indicates that the task will be run every hour.
- 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 named after the Greek god Chronos, who represents time itself..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 1 hour for several reasons, including:
- Run a script to sync data from an external API
- Run a script to generate a report
- Run a script to send out daily emails
- Run a script to clean up temporary files
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 10 hours
- every 4 hours
- every 9 hours
- every 11 hours
- every hour between 12:00 am and 3:00 am
- every hour between 3:00 pm and 4:00 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 1 hour. 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.