This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 5 months on day 2 of the month.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 0 2 */5 *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 5 months on day 2 of the month.”
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.
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 5 months on day 2 of the month“:
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..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 5 months on day 2 of the month for several reasons, including:
- Check for updates to a software package and download them
- Run a script to generate reports
- Delete temporary files that are older than 30 days
- Send an email to the administrator
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 2 months
- every 1 month
- every 6 months
- every 5 months
- every 4 months
- every 3 months on day 22 of the month
- every 2 months on day 11 of the month
FUN FACT: Cron jobs are stored in a file called “crontab”, which is short for “cron table”..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 5 months on day 2 of the month. 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.