This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 5 days at 8:00 pm.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 20 */5 * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 5 days at 8:00 pm.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at a specific time or interval. These jobs are usually used for automating tasks, such as running backups or sending emails. Cron is the name of the program that enables users to schedule these jobs.
A crontab is a file that contains a list of commands that are to be executed at specified times. The commands in the crontab are executed by the cron daemon, which runs in the background.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every 5 days at 8:00 pm“:
FUN FACT: Cron jobs are named after the Greek god of time, Chronos – so now you know where the name comes from!.
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 5 days at 8:00 pm for several reasons, including:
- Sending a daily report on server usage statistics to the system administrator
- Backing up user data from a network file storage system
- Generating weekly reports on website traffic
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 8 days
- every 3 days
- every 6 days
- every 1 day
- every 2 days
- every 9 days
- every 3 days at 7:00 am
- every 6 days at 12:00 am
FUN FACT: When editing your crontab, it is important to use a text editor that supports Unix-style line endings (LF), as opposed to Windows-style line endings (CRLF)..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every 5 days at 8:00 pm. 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.
