Cron Job Every 2 Minutes (Crontab)

This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 2 minutes.

The Cron Job/Crontab

To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:

*/2 * * * *

This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):

“Every 2 minutes.”

What is a Cron Job & Crontab?

To create or edit a cron job, users must first open the crontab file using a text editor. The crontab file contains instructions for the cron daemon, which is the program that actually executes the commands specified in the file. Each line in the crontab file represents a single task or command.

Cron Fields

Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every 2 minutes“:

Field 1: (*/2) indicates that the task will be run every 2 minutes.

Field 2: (*) indicates that the task will be run every hour.

Field 3: (*) indicates that the task will be run every day of the month.

Field 4: (*) indicates that the task will be run every month.

Field 5: (*) indicates that the task will be run every day of the week.

 

FUN FACT: If you need to temporarily disable a cron job, you can simply comment out the line in the crontab file that corresponds to that particular task..

Use Cases

You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 2 minutes for several reasons, including:

• Running a task every 2 minutes, such as checking for new data
• Automatically backing up files every 2 minutes
• Sending out reminders or updates every 2 minutes

Similar Cron Jobs

You might also want to run a crontab:

• every 9 minutes
• every 21 minutes
• every 8 minutes
• every 20 minutes
• every 12 minutes
• every minute between 1:00 am and 12:00 pm
• every minute between 2:00 pm and 10:00 pm

FUN FACT: When troubleshooting issues with cron jobs, it can be helpful to run them manually from the command line – this will allow you to see any error messages that might be generated..

Wrapping Up

In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 2 minutes. 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.