This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
* 2-16 * * *
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a time-based task that is set to run at a specific interval. For example, a cron job can be set to run every day at midnight in order to update a database or send out nightly emails. Cron jobs are typically used for maintenance tasks that need to be performed on a regular basis.
A crontab is a text file that contains a list of commands to be run at specified times. The commands in the crontab are executed by the cron daemon, which runs on most Unix-like systems.
Cron Fields
Every cron job uses five fields. Here is an explanation of what each field does in this cron, which runs “every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 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 minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm for several reasons, including:
- A user wants to be alerted every time a new email arrives in their inbox
- A server needs to check for new updates every hour
- A website needs to be backed up every day
- A cron job runs a system maintenance task every Sunday at 2:00 am
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- every 14 minutes
- every 6 minutes
- every 24 minutes
- every 9 minutes
- every minute between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm
- every minute between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm
FUN FACT: When troubleshooting issues with cron jobs, it can be helpful to run them manually from the command line – this will allow you to see any error messages that might be generated..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs every minute between 2:00 am and 4:00 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 cron job cheat sheet for a list of hundreds of popular cron jobs.
