This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 am.

The Cron Job/Crontab

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

* 2-4 * * *

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

“Every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 am.”

What is a Cron Job & Crontab?

A cron job is a time-based task that is typically set up to run automatically at regular intervals. For example, a cron job might be used to send out a daily email report or to back up files every night.

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. The crontab file is used to specify which tasks are to be run and when they are to be run.

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 2:00 am and 4:00 am“:

Field 1: (*) indicates that the task will be run every minute.

Field 2: (2-4) indicates that the task will be run between hours 2 and 4 (2 am to 4 am).

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: A common use for cron jobs is to generate periodic reports – for example, you could set up a cron job to automatically generate and send out a report on website traffic statistics every week..

Use Cases

You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 am for several reasons, including:

Back up data at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00
Run a report at 2:15, 3:15, and 4:15
Sync data to an external server at 2:30, 3:30, and 4:30

Similar Cron Jobs

You might also want to run a crontab:

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..

Wrapping Up

In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 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 crontab cheat sheet for a list of hundreds of popular cron jobs.

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Cron Job Every Minute Between 2:00 am & 4:00 am (Crontab)