This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every hour between 3:00 am and 1:00 pm.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 3-13 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every hour between 3:00 am and 1:00 pm.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
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 hour between 3:00 am and 1:00 pm“:
FUN FACT: Cron is typically used for things like system maintenance tasks, running backups etc..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every hour between 3:00 am and 1:00 pm for several reasons, including:
- Automating a daily backup at 3:00 am
- Running a script to update data hourly
- Checking for new messages every hour
- Sending out a report every hour
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 3 hours
- every 6 hours
- every 1 hour
- every 2 hours
- every 12 hours
- every 10 hours
- every hour between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm
- every 7 hours at 30 minutes past the hour
FUN FACT: Each user on a system can have their own crontab, and commands in them will be executed as that user..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every hour between 3:00 am and 1:00 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 crontab cheat sheet for a list of hundreds of popular cron jobs.