Cron Job Every 6 Months (Crontab)

This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 6 months (every half year).

The Cron Job/Crontab

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

0 0 1 */6 *

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

“Every 6 months.”

What is a Cron Job & Crontab?

A cron job is a task that is scheduled to run at a specific time or interval. Cron jobs are typically used for automating tasks, such as running backups or sending emails.

A crontab is a text file containing a list of commands that are executed at specified times. The commands in the crontab are executed by the cron daemon, which runs in the background and checks for new entries every minute.

Cron Fields

Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every 6 months“:

Field 1: (0) indicates that the task will be run at minute 0.

Field 2: (0) indicates that the task will be run at hour 0 (12 am).

Field 3: (1) indicates that the task will be run on day 1 of every month.

Field 4: (*/6) indicates that the task will be run every 6 months.

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

 

FUN FACT: The most common way to edit cron jobs is using the crontab command – this stands for “cron table,” and it contains all the information about when your tasks should be executed..

Use Cases

You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 6 months for several reasons, including:

• Updating a database
• Generating reports
• Sending emails
• Backing up data

Similar Cron Jobs

You might also want to run a crontab:

• every 5 months
• every 3 months
• every 6 months
• every 2 months
• every 4 months
• every 1 month
• every 6 months on day 10 of the month
• every 3 months on day 16 of the month
• every 1 month on day 14 of the month

FUN FACT: Cron jobs are automated processes that run on a schedule..

Wrapping Up

In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 6 months. 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.