Cron

This page was last updated on July 18, 2009.

See the Wikipedia Cron page for an indepth explanation of what Cron is and how to use it.

Add a cron job

1. Open a terminal window and type:

crontab -e

Crontab creates a temporary file and opens the nano editor.

2. Type in the cron job:

30 14 * * * env DISPLAY=:0.0 /usr/bin/kaffeine

This example will run Kaffeine every day at 2:30 p.m. The env DISPLAY=:0.0 part is only required for GUI applications.

3. Save the file by pressing the Ctrl and o (that’s the letter – not a zero) keys at the same time.
4. Type in either a file name or a path and file name and press the Enter key.
5. Exit the nano editor by pressing the Ctrl and x keys at the same time. Crontab will merge your changes into your crontab.

Look at your cron job(s)

1. Open a terminal window and type:

crontab -l

Edit your cron job(s)

1. Open a terminal window and type:

crontab -e

2. Type in the changes you wish to make to the file.
3. Save the file by pressing the Ctrl and o keys at the same time.
4. Type in either a file name or a path and file name and press the Enter key.
5. Exit the nano editor by pressing the Ctrl and x keys at the same time. Crontab will merge your changes into your crontab.

Remove your cron job(s)

1. Open a terminal window and type:

crontab -r

Obligatory Happy Ending

And they all lived happily ever after. The end.