How To Set Up A Cron Job To Run On Weekdays?

Specifying Weekdays in Cron Syntax

To show weekdays in cron syntax, use numbers (1-5) or short day names (Mon-Fri). In cron format, 1 is Monday, and 5 is Friday.

Examples of weekday cron expressions:

• 0 9 * * 1-5: Runs at 9 AM every weekday
• 30 18 * * Mon-Fri: Runs at 6:30 PM every weekday
• 0 12 * * 2,4: Runs at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Creating a Cron Job for Weekdays

To set up a weekday cron job:

1. Open the terminal.
2. Type crontab -e to edit the crontab file.
3. Choose your text editor if asked.
4. Add your cron job expression on a new line.
5. Save and exit the editor.

The command to edit the crontab file is:

crontab -e

This opens the crontab file for the current user. To edit the crontab for a different user or with root permissions, use:

sudo crontab -u username -e

Replace "username" with the user account you want.

Creating the Cron Expression

To run a script every 2 minutes on weekdays from 9 AM to 2 PM, use this cron syntax:

*/2 9-14 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh

Here's what each part of this expression means:

• */2: Runs every 2 minutes
• 9-14: From 9 AM to 2 PM (2 PM is hour 14 in 24-hour format)
• * *: Any day of the month and any month
• 1-5: Monday through Friday

Setting Up the Weekday Cron Job

To set up this cron job:

1. Open your terminal
2. Type crontab -e to edit your crontab file
3. Add this line:

*/2 9-14 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh

Replace /path/to/your/script.sh with the full path to your script. For example:

*/2 9-14 * * 1-5 /home/username/scripts/myscript.sh

Make sure your script has the right permissions to run. You can set these with:

chmod +x /path/to/your/script.sh

This cron job will run your script every 2 minutes from 9 AM to 2 PM, Monday through Friday.

*/2 9-14 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh >> /path/to/logfile.log 2>&1