This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 3 minutes.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
*/3 * * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 3 minutes.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a scheduled task that is typically executed by the server in order to automate certain processes or tasks. For example, a cron job could be set up to automatically backup a database every night at 2am.
Each user has their own crontab file, and the commands in this file are only executed by that particular user. The file contains instructions for the cron daemon. To edit your crontab file, you can use 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 3 minutes“:
FUN FACT: One common use for cron jobs is to send out email reminders or notifications based on certain events (such as an upcoming deadline)..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 3 minutes for several reasons, including:
- Checking if a server is still responding every 3 minutes
- Sending out a notification every 3 minutes
- Performing a backup every 3 minutes
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 16 minutes
- every 30 minutes
- every 8 minutes
- every 17 minutes
- every 3 minutes
- every 10 minutes
- every minute between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm
- every minute between 2:00 am and 10:00 pm
FUN FACT: When configuring a cron job, you can specify the minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week when it should run – this gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of when your task will be performed automatically!.
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 3 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.