30 Common Cron Schedule Examples for Daily Automation

2026-07-25· Tags: cron-examples, cron-schedule, crontab-examples, automation-schedule, linux-cron

30 Common Cron Schedule Examples

Cron expressions are the backbone of Linux automation. This guide provides 30 ready-to-use cron examples organized by frequency, covering the most common automation scenarios for developers and system administrators.

Every Minute to Every Hour

1-2. Every Minute / Every 5 Minutes

* * * * * /path/to/script.sh     # Runs 1,440 times per day
*/5 * * * * /path/to/script.sh   # Health checks, queue processing

3-5. Every 10 / 15 / 30 Minutes

*/10 * * * * /path/to/script.sh  # Monitoring dashboards
*/15 * * * * /path/to/script.sh  # Data synchronization
*/30 * * * * /path/to/script.sh  # Session cleanup

6-8. Every 1 / 2 / 6 Hours

0 * * * * /path/to/script.sh     # Top of each hour, log rotation
0 */2 * * * /path/to/script.sh   # Midnight, 2 AM, 4 AM batch jobs
0 */6 * * * /path/to/script.sh   # Certificate renewal checks

Daily Schedules

9-13. Daily at Specific Times

0 0 * * * /path/to/script.sh     # Midnight — backups, DB dumps
0 3 * * * /path/to/script.sh     # 3 AM — full system backups
0 6 * * * /path/to/script.sh     # 6 AM — morning reports
0 12 * * * /path/to/script.sh    # Noon — midday API syncs
30 23 * * * /path/to/script.sh   # 11:30 PM — end-of-day billing

14-15. Multiple Times Daily

0 6,18 * * * /path/to/script.sh  # Twice daily, 6 AM and 6 PM
0 8,12,16,20 * * * /script.sh   # Every 4 hours during business

Weekly Schedules

16-18. Weekly on Specific Days

0 8 * * 1 /path/to/script.sh     # Monday 8 AM — weekly reports
0 17 * * 5 /path/to/script.sh    # Friday 5 PM — end-of-week backups
0 0 * * 0 /path/to/script.sh     # Sunday midnight — system updates

19-21. Weekday Schedules

0 9 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh   # Weekdays 9 AM — start monitoring
30 17 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh # Weekdays 5:30 PM — closing reports
0 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh# Hourly, 9-5 weekdays

Monthly and Periodic

22-24. Monthly Schedules

0 0 1 * * /path/to/script.sh          # 1st of month — invoices
0 8 15 * * /path/to/script.sh         # 15th — mid-month reports
0 0 28,29,30,31 * * /path/to/script.sh# Last day (skips shorter months)

25-27. Quarterly and Yearly

0 0 1 1,4,7,10 * /path/to/script.sh  # Quarterly reviews
0 0 15 */3 * /path/to/script.sh      # Every 3 months
0 0 1 1 * /path/to/script.sh         # Yearly — SSL renewals

28-29. Twice-Weekly and Weekday Intervals

0 8 * * 1,4 /path/to/script.sh       # Monday and Thursday
*/15 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh # Weekdays every 15 min

30. Chained Commands

0 6 * * * /path/to/backup.sh && /path/to/cleanup.sh

Second command runs only if the first succeeds.

Building Your Crontab

# Minute  Hour  Day  Month  Weekday  Command
  */5     *     *    *      *        /opt/scripts/health-check.sh
  0       6     *    *      *        /opt/scripts/daily-backup.sh
  0       18    *    *      1-5      /opt/scripts/eod-report.sh
  0       0     1    *      *        /opt/scripts/monthly-cleanup.sh

Run crontab -e to add entries. The cron daemon loads new schedules automatically.

Test Before Deploying

Always validate new cron expressions with the cron expression validator. Preview the next 20 execution times and confirm your schedule behaves as expected.