This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 6 hours.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 */6 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 6 hours.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at specific intervals. This can be anything from running a backup script every night to sending out an email notification once a week. Cron jobs are typically used for maintenance or repetitive tasks.
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 6 hours“:
FUN FACT: Cron jobs are named after the Greek god of time, Chronos – so now you know where the name comes from!.
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 6 hours for several reasons, including:
- Checking the status of a long-running process
- Sending out a reminder email
- Generating a report
- Updating a data feed
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 5 hours
- every 9 hours
- every 1 hour
- every 2 hours
- every 11 hours
- every hour between 10:00 am and 10:00 pm
- every hour between 3:00 am and 10:00 am
FUN FACT: If a cron job is not properly configured, it might never execute – so make sure you double-check your settings before setting one up!.
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 6 hours. 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.