Cron Tab
Cron can appear to be challenging at first, but with the proper help,
you will find it easy and very helpful to automate tasks on your
website.
Cron is simply a way to run any program/script on your web hosted
account once a day, once a week, once a month, every Tuesday and
Thursday, etc.
It is helpful in automatically performing web site maintenance,
automating scripts that generate new sales/coupons/etc. It can
even help establish a back routine for your web site.
Cron is composed of five fields. The following chart details each
field.
|
Minute |
Hour |
Day of Month |
Month |
Day of Week |
| 0 |
= |
0
Such as in 1:00 |
| 1 |
= |
1
Such as in 1:01
etc. |
|
| * |
= |
Every
Hour |
| 0 |
= |
12am |
| 1 |
= |
1am |
| 2 |
= |
2am |
| 12 |
= |
12pm |
| 13 |
= |
1pm |
etc. |
| * |
= |
Every Day
of the Month |
| 1 |
= |
1st Day
of the Month |
etc. |
| * |
= |
Every
Month |
| 1 |
= |
Jan |
| 2 |
= |
Feb |
etc. |
| * |
= |
Every Day |
| 0 |
= |
Sunday |
| 1 |
= |
Monday |
| 2 |
= |
Tuesday |
| 3 |
= |
Wednesday |
| 4 |
= |
Thursday |
| 5 |
= |
Friday |
| 6 |
= |
Saturday |
|
Common examples include...
|
minute |
hour |
day of month |
month |
day of week |
|
To perform a daily task at 2 am |
0 |
2 |
* |
* |
* |
|
To perform a weekly task on Sunday at 2 am |
0 |
2 |
* |
* |
0 |
|
To perform a monthly task on the 1st of each month at 2 am |
0 |
2 |
1 |
* |
* |
|
To perform a task each Tuesday AND Friday at 2 am |
0 |
2 |
* |
* |
2,5 |
The following chart indicates what each number or symbol represent.
Please note:
- Set the cron to perform the task ONLY as
frequently as you expect you need the task to be performed.
- Do NOT set the cron to perform
something everyday and that only needs to be done once a month or every
other week. This wastes valuable CPU time for your website and for
others.
-
WARNING: You can quickly have your account suspended by
overusing cron jobs. Do NOT set a cron job to run any more often
than 30 minutes. Even then, it could lead to your account
suspension due to over use of the server. Remember, you are on a
shared server with other people, keep this into consideration.
- Please keep these notes in mind,
otherwise we will limit your cron access to a case-by-case basis.
|
