This page will help you quickly and easily set up a cron job to run once per week on Wednesday.
The Cron Job/Crontab
To have your task run at this frequency, use the following cron:
0 0 * * 3
This cron command translates to the following (in Human-Readable format):
“Once per week on Wednesday.”
What is a Cron Job & Crontab?
A cron job is a scheduled task that is typically executed by the operating system. Cron jobs are often used to automate repetitive tasks, such as backing up files or checking for updates.
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 “once per week on Wednesday“:
- Field 1: (0) indicates that the task will be run at minute 0.
- Field 2: (0) indicates that the task will be run at hour 0 (12 am).
- Field 3: (*) indicates that the task will be run every day of the month.
- Field 4: (*) indicates that the task will be run every month.
- Field 5: (3) indicates that the task will be run every Wednesday.
FUN FACT: Cron jobs are stored in a file called “crontab”, which is short for “cron table”..
Use Cases
You might want to set up a crontab or cron job to run once per week on Wednesday for several reasons, including:
- Backup a database
- Send out a weekly newsletter
- Generate reports
- Delete temporary files
Similar Cron Jobs
You might also want to run a crontab:
- once per week on Monday
- once per week on Saturday
- once per week on Sunday
- once per week on Wednesday
- once per week on Tuesday
- once per day on Monday to Wednesday
- once per day on Monday to Friday
- once per day on Friday to Saturday
FUN FACT: Each user on a system can have their own crontab, and commands in them will be executed as that user..
Wrapping Up
In this article, you learned how to set up a cron job that runs once per week on Wednesday. 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.
