This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every 6 hours at 10 minutes past the hour.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
10 */6 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every 6 hours at 10 minutes past the hour.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a task that is scheduled to run at a specific time or interval. Cron is a Linux utility that allows tasks to be automatically run in the background at regular intervals. These tasks are often called “cron jobs.”
A crontab is a file that contains commands to be run at specified times. The crontab file is typically edited using the crontab command, which can be used to list, edit, or delete the contents of the file.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every 6 hours at 10 minutes past the hour“:
FUN FACT: Cron jobs can be set up to run at specific times, or they can be configured to run periodically (e.g., every hour)..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run every 6 hours at 10 minutes past the hour for several reasons, including:
- Automatically update software
- Perform system maintenance tasks
- Generate reports
- Backup files
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 10 hours
- every 11 hours
- every 3 hours
- every 9 hours
- every 5 hours
- every 7 hours
- every hour between 4:00 am and 11:00 pm
- every hour between 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm
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 6 hours at 10 minutes past the hour. 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.
