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.

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