Day 10: Scheduling Tasks with Cron Jobs in Linux | by Karthick Dk | Oct, 2024

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Hey Guys! Welcome back to our DevOps in 90 Days series, In this post we will explore Scheduling Tasks with Cron on Linux.

In the world of Linux, automation is the key to efficient system management. One of the most reliable tools for task automation is the humble cron job. Whether you’re backing up databases, cleaning up logs, or sending regular reports, cron jobs are indispensable for scheduled task execution. In this post, we’ll dive deep into using cron jobs for advanced scheduling and share tips to ensure your automated tasks run smoothly in production environments.

A cron job is a scheduled task that is set to run at specific intervals on a Unix-based system. The cron service reads crontab files (cron tables) to execute the tasks defined in them. Each user, including root, can have their own crontab file, making cron a versatile tool for personal or system-wide scheduling.

Here’s an example of a basic cron job format:

* * * * * /path/to/script.sh

This cron job would run every minute, but cron syntax can get far more precise (and fun!).