This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every minute between 1:00 am and 3:00 am.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
* 1-3 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every minute between 1:00 am and 3:00 am.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a Linux utility used for scheduling the execution of commands or scripts at a specified time and date. Cron is typically used for system maintenance or administration, such as running backups or log rotation.
The crontab is a file that contains instructions for the cron daemon. The crontab is typically edited using the crontab command.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every minute between 1:00 am and 3:00 am“:
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 minute between 1:00 am and 3:00 am for several reasons, including:
- Taking regular backups of a database
- Generating reports that need to be sent out at the start of each day
- Fetching updated data from an external source
- Running a nightly cleanup script
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 4 minutes
- every 29 minutes
- every 3 minutes
- every 18 minutes
- every 30 minutes
- every minute between 1:00 am and 9:00 pm
- every minute between 4:00 am and 7:00 am
FUN FACT: If you want to edit your personal crontab, just type: “crontab -e” at the command prompt..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every minute between 1:00 am and 3:00 am. 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.