This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 3 hours at 50 minutes past the hour.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
50 */3 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 3 hours at 50 minutes past the hour.”
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 3 hours at 50 minutes past the hour“:
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 3 hours at 50 minutes past the hour for several reasons, including:
- Automatically update software
- Automatically run system maintenance tasks
- Automatically generate reports
- Automatically send notifications
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 7 hours
- every 1 hour
- every 3 hours
- every 11 hours
- every 10 hours
- every hour between 1:00 am and 3:00 am
- every hour between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm
- every hour between 12:00 pm and 10:00 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 3 hours at 50 minutes past the 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.