LINUX/UNIX - setup cron jobs

Cron Jobs

Cron is one of the most useful tool in Linux or UNIX like operating systems. The cron service (daemon) runs in the background and constantly checks the /etc/crontab file, /etc/cron.*/ directories. It also checks the /var/spool/cron/ directory.

1. Create your own shell script/repetitive job (backup script etc...)
2. Install / Create / Edit  Own Cronjobs

To edit your crontab file, type the following command at the UNIX / Linux shell prompt:$ crontab –e

Now add the your cron job to this file like below

     * * * * * /u01/my.sh ( command to be executed )

Where,

• 1: Minute (0-59)
• 2: Hours (0-23)
• 3: Day (0-31)
• 4: Month (0-12 [12 == December])
• 5: Day of the week(0-7 [7 or 0 == sunday])
• /path/to/command - Script or command name to schedule

Easy to remember format:

* * * * * command to be executed

- - - - -

| | | | |

| | | |  ----- Day of week (0 - 7) (Sunday=0 or 7)

| | |  ------- Month (1 - 12)

| |  --------- Day of month (1 - 31)

|  ----------- Hour (0 - 23)

------------- Minute (0 - 59)

More Examples

To run /path/to/command five minutes after midnight, every day, enter:
5 0 * * * /path/to/command

Run /path/to/script.sh at 2:15pm on the first of every month, enter:
15 14 1 * * /path/to/script.sh

Run /scripts/phpscript.php at 10 pm on weekdays, enter:
0 22 * * 1-5 /scripts/phpscript.php

Run /root/scripts/perl/perlscript.pl at 23 minutes after midnight, 2am, 4am ..., everyday, enter:
23 0-23/2 * * * /root/scripts/perl/perlscript.pl
Run /path/to/unixcommand at 5 after 4 every Sunday, enter:
5 4 * * sun /path/to/unixcommand

Task: List All Your crontab Jobs

Type the following command :
# crontab -l
# crontab -u username -l

To remove or erase all crontab jobs use the following command:
# crontab -r
crontab -r -u username

Use special string to save time

Instead of the first five fields, you can use any one of eight special strings. It will not just save your time but it will improve readability.

Special string	Meaning
@reboot	Run once, at startup.
@yearly	Run once a year, "0 0 1 1 *".
@annually	(same as @yearly)
@monthly	Run once a month, "0 0 1 * *".
@weekly	Run once a week, "0 0 * * 0".
@daily	Run once a day, "0 0 * * *".
@midnight	(same as @daily)
@hourly	Run once an hour, "0 * * * *".

Run ntpdate every hour:
@hourly /path/to/ntpdate
Make a backup everyday:
@daily /path/to/backup/script.sh

Understanding /etc/crontab file and /etc/cron.d/* directories

/etc/crontab is system crontabs file. Usually only used by root user or daemons to configure system wide jobs. All individual user must must use crontab command to install and edit their jobs as described above. /var/spool/cron/ or /var/cron/tabs/ is directory for personal user crontab files. It must be backup with users home directory.

Understanding Default /etc/crontab

Typical /etc/crontab file entries:

SHELL=/bin/bash

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

MAILTO=root

HOME=/

# run-parts

01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly

02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily

22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly

42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

First, the environment must be defined. If the shell line is omitted, cron will use the default, which is sh. If the PATH variable is omitted, no default will be used and file locations will need to be absolute. If HOME is omitted, cron will use the invoking users’ home directory.

Additionally, cron reads the files in /etc/cron.d/ directory. Usually system daemon such as sa-update or sysstat places their cronjob here. As a root user or superuser you can use following directories to configure cronjobs. You can directly drop your scripts here. run-parts command run scripts or programs in a directory via /etc/crontab

Directory	Description
/etc/cron.d/	Put all scripts here and call them from /etc/crontab file.
/etc/cron.daily/	Run all scripts once a day
/etc/cron.hourly/	Run all scripts once an hour
/etc/cron.monthly/	Run all scripts once a month
/etc/cron.weekly/	Run all scripts once a week

How do I Use Above Directories To Put My Scripts?

Here is a sample shell script (clean.cache) to clean up cached files every 10 days. This script is directly created at /etc/cron.daliy/ directory i.e. create a file called /etc/cron.daily/clean.cache:

#!/bin/bash

# A sample shell script to clean cached file from lighttpd web server

CROOT="/tmp/cachelighttpd/"

DAYS=10

LUSER="lighttpd"

LGROUP="lighttpd"

# start cleaning

/usr/bin/find ${CROOT} -type f -mtime +${DAYS} | xargs -r /bin/rm

# if directory deleted by some other script just get it back

if [ ! -d $CROOT ]

then

       /bin/mkdir -p $CROOT

       /bin/chown ${LUSER}:${LGROUP} ${CROOT}

fi

How Do I Backup Installed Cronjobs Entries?

Simply type the following command to backup your cronjobs to a nas server mounted at /nas01/backup/cron/users.root.bakup directory:
# crontab -l > /nas01/backup/cron/users.root.bakup
# crontab -u userName -l > /nas01/backup/cron/users.userName.bakup

Start/Stop/Restart cron service

# /etc/init.d/crond start

# /etc/init.d/crond stop

# /etc/init.d/crond restart   

For Troubleshoot look the below location mail

/var/spool/mail/oracle