Running a job the first monday of the month?

yanik · 05-15-2007, 02:18 PM

I looking for a way to start a job the first monday of the month at 7h.

I've read the crontab's man page and it seems it can't be done with cron.

I'm not real good with scripts, could someone point me in the right direction?

I guess I could start the job the first thru the 7th day of every month and somehow test the date to see if we're monday...

Anyway, any pointers would be appreciated.

Yanik

GrapefruiTgirl · 05-15-2007, 03:02 PM

Something like this in the script called by cron, located in the 'cron.foldername' folder (I'm not great with scripting either, but I think this would work):

Code:

#!/bin/sh
weekday=`date +%A`
if [ $weekday == "Monday" ]; then
  < insert job here >
fi

and the cron would be run as you figured: for the first 7 days each month, by adding this to the root crontab (or whoever's crontab it is) like:

Code:

00 7 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 * 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.foldername 1> /dev/null

This runs the check/job each day of the week (0-6) for the first 7 days (1-7) of each month.

EDIT: Not sure about the '==' in BASH; it may need only one '=' ..

yanik · 05-15-2007, 03:34 PM

thanks GrapefruiTgirl,

I think I got a oneliner tho:

Code:

0 7 * * * [ `/bin/date +%u` -eq 1 -a `/bin/date +%e` -lt 8 ] && /some/command 2>&1 >/dev/null

So if we're monday AND the date is below the 8th, we're the first monday of the month for sure SO do some command.

thanks again

GrapefruiTgirl · 05-15-2007, 04:07 PM

Hey that looks great

and much more complicated looking than I would have come up with! So many options to the 'date' command

does it work how you want?

michaelk · 05-15-2007, 05:48 PM

How about
0 7 1-7 * 1 /path/to/your/command

GrapefruiTgirl · 05-15-2007, 06:05 PM

Dang Mickaelk.. That looks so darned simple, and yet.. It looks like just the thing

lol.

michaelk · 05-15-2007, 06:18 PM

It should work.

yanik · 05-16-2007, 07:03 AM

yeah I thought about that one but it doesn't work, here's the relevent part of the man page:

Quote:

Note: The day of a command’s execution can be specified by two fields —
day of month, and day of week. If both fields are restricted (i.e.,
aren’t *), the command will be run when either field matches the cur‐
rent time. For example,
‘‘30 4 1,15 * 5’’ would cause a command to be run at 4:30 am on the 1st
and 15th of each month, plus every Friday.

Pete89 · 03-05-2008, 01:02 PM

I am wondering if Yanik ever got this to work:

Code:

0 7 * * * [ `/bin/date +%u` -eq 1 -a `/bin/date +%e` -lt 8 ] && /some/command 2>&1 >/dev/null

I am looking to run a cron the first Monday of every month and would like to confirm this.

Thanks,

Pete

yanik · 03-05-2008, 01:34 PM

Here's what I have and that I can confirm it works.

[ `/bin/date +%u` -eq 1 -a `/bin/date +%e` -lt " 8" ] && /some/command 2>&1

I had to put it in a bash script and make cron execute it.

Pete89 · 03-05-2008, 03:12 PM

So then you execute the script everyday then right? And if its Monday and a date less than 8 it will run the command right?

Sorry but I still dont what the actual content does.

Thanks a lot for your help ....

Pete

yanik · 03-05-2008, 04:12 PM

that's right

michaelk · 03-05-2008, 05:08 PM

Indeed, here is another method I found. The following will run only on Mondays instead of everyday but the test is only true if it is the first week. Also easily modified for any day of any week.

0 7 * * 1 [ `date +\%e` -gt 0 -a `date +\%e` -lt 8 ] && some command