This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every hour between 3:00 am and 9:00 pm.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 3-21 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every hour between 3:00 am and 9:00 pm.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at a specific time or interval. These jobs are usually used for automating tasks, such as running backups or sending emails. Cron is the name of the program that enables users to schedule these jobs.
Crontab is a file that contains instructions for the cron daemon, which is a program that executes commands at specified intervals. Crontab files are typically edited with the crontab command, which allows users to create, edit, and delete their own crontab files.
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 9:00 pm“:
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 hour between 3:00 am and 9:00 pm for several reasons, including:
- Scheduling a daily backup
- Sending out a daily report
- Restarting a web server every day at 3:00 am
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 8 hours
- every 3 hours
- every 7 hours
- every 2 hours
- every hour between 11:00 am and 10:00 pm
- every hour between 3:00 am and 4:00 am
FUN FACT: Cron jobs can be used to automate just about any task that needs to be performed regularly – so get creative and see what you can come up with!.
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every hour between 3:00 am and 9:00 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.