This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every hour between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 2-16 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every hour between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
In computing, a cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at certain predetermined times or intervals. A cron job can be used to schedule anything from basic tasks like running backups to more complex tasks like sending out email alerts or syncing files between servers. Cron jobs are typically used for maintenance or administrative tasks that need to be performed on a regular basis.
A crontab is a file that contains instructions for the cron daemon. The cron daemon is a program that runs in the background and executes tasks at specified times. A crontab file consists of a series of lines, each of which represents a task to be executed. Each line has five fields, separated by spaces or tabs.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every hour between 2:00 am and 4:00 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)..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every hour between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm for several reasons, including:
- Checking the status of a long-running process
- Running a nightly backup
- Sending out a daily report
- Fetching data from an external API
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 6 hours
- every 10 hours
- every 4 hours
- every 3 hours
- every hour between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm
- every hour between 10:00 am and 11:00 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 hour between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm. 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.